Spiritual concepts of the sides

**Spirituality** is of course an ambiguous concept, but defined
loosely it is a focus on spiritual matters, and an orientation to the
metaphysical spiritual essence that structures or pervades the world.
While spirituality is a large facet of most religions, note that
spirit here does not necessarily have to mean a violation of
naturalism, since spirit to early people was in some ways a synonym
for mind. So writers like jung who profess naturalism have upheld the
idea of spirituality as well.

This page is about the different real world spiritual concepts
from various religious or beliefs that the different in game sides
are based on. Some of these concepts such as "sin" are
referred to by name in the games. Others may not be. But the sides
being based on them is not necessarily merely a facet of how the
games were written. Since the sides in game are meant to be future
syncretic religions based on the real world religions that exist now,
and which draw from them. So if something is an inspiration for the
side, then it is likely meant to be something that in-game that
side's idea of was derived from the real world idea.

Note however that a list of the spiritual concepts that show up
in-game is not necessarily an exhaustive understanding of their
worldview. This is because in many ways they are based more on ethical
philosophies that despite being viewed through a religious lens exist
external to them. the groups are not fully analogous to real world
religions, being more a future type of format of an ideology that
relates to supernatural beings in a world where they are understood
to exist. So rather than viewing these terms in a totally theological
light, it helps to view them as context for the more primarily
ethical dynamics of the sides.

An important thing to note is that just because an idea is associated with a side does not mean that the idea doesn't show up in the paradigms of the opposing sides. Since the sides all exist in the same universe and their cosmology details how they relate to eachother. For instance, the spiritual forces they represent are in a sense a universal polarity. And the sides see the opposing side as an opposite polarity that contextualizes the big picture, even if they have different ideas on what this implies should be done.

Likewise, note that this won't bother describing every type of
demon that exists in the games. This is more about the abstract or
sacramental religious or spiritual ideas. Although it will mention
some beings since some beings are necessary to contextualize the
spiritual understandings of the sides, in how those specific beings
relate to them.

Note that this page may overlap to some degree with many of the
other pages, due to being about the spiritual understandings of those
things. It overlaps with ethics for the ethical concepts that are
spiritual, overlaps with the theism pages, and of course overlaps
with the pages of specific religions. Note also that something not
being in this list doesn't imply its not a concept the side uses,
just that it isn't something that shows up in-game. But since the
games don't overly highlight the specific spiritual dynamics of the
groups that means they likely have much additional content that we
never see. Since the games don't focus in much depth on the nature of
the spiritual views of the sides, the information about it only comes
from times it is offhandedly depicted. For instance law uses mostly abrahamic language, but vishnu also works for them in SMTI. So they may use some hindu language that we just don't see.

## Law

**Abbadon** (and its greek equivalent appolyn) appears in the
bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. In
the hebrew Bible, abaddon is used with reference to a bottomless pit,
often appearing alongside the place (Sheol), meaning the realm of the
dead. While it also show up as an entity in II and a title in raidou
2, in IV it i used as a term by merkabah to delineate a bottomless
abyss, being used to describe a black hole. giving religious
significance even to natural things. Notably, it is associated with
an abyss in many of those games, even where it is also an entity. In
apocalypse an angel refers to merkabah's orders as the fifth trumpet,
in reference to that merkabah was going to bring forth abbadon.

**Adamah** is a hebrew world meaning ground or earth, which
occurs in the Biblical account of Creation of the Book of Genesis,
and which is used to show a link between humankind (through adam) and
the soil. This is the basis between the phrases commonly said in
church dust to dust which highlight ephemeral existence. In SMTII
satan at the end talks about how there is no future for him, so he
returns to the soil from which he was created. And in apocalypse yhvh
refers to you as you who were once only dust. Adamah also shows up in the name of a floor in persona 3.

**Adoptionism** is a Christian nontrinitarian theological
doctrine which holds that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God at his
baptism, his resurrection, or his ascension. The law side seems to
take this tone as regards the messiah for the obvious fact that most
messiahs that are seen were not specifically chosen to be one until
some point in their life. Although the possibility of god choosing a
special soul for such a role does exist. Law hero even says that the
messiah was not god himself, but a human, referring to jesus,
highlighting a theology that treats jesus as having been born as a
regular non divine human.

**Amatsukami** are the kami of heaven in shinto, the primary one of which is amatarasu. These were seen as descending from heaven to japan in ancient times, and establishing rulership over it as well as giving rise to the lineage of divine japanese emperors.

In contrast with the chaos leaning kami of earth, the amatsukami are seen as having a law leaning, due to their association both with heaven and with wanting to pacify the world. While some games like II imply that despite these leanings they still ultimately work for neutral, in sj they are a stronger presence on the law side, and raidou I mentions them as united with the angels, with desu also hinting as such. While an interview for apocalypse describes amaterasu as law, she is never overtly seen on the law side, being of seemingly indeterminate side in sj. So while amatsukami are a major presence on law, they may be split between alignments.

Although the real world evidence for this is tenuous, hachiman in the games is implied to be related to yhvh, and potentially some form of alternate or conflated interpretation. Due to the association of yhvh and avatars as solar deity, it seems some amatsukami may have a relationship with them related to their relationship to amaterasu. The world egg avatar of god being called kagutsuchi also makes an association of law and amatsu.

This relationship ties back to the references made to the jewish japanese common ancestor theory. Atlus implies that the imperial japanese line in-game ties to the lost tribes of Israel. This would implicitly make the amatsu and angels tied together. This same theory relates yhvh to the archaic kami of creation, which given how god is coded in nocturne gives further context for the relation. They may have the same heavenly source, but emanated different directions, with a close relationship.

**Angel** **healing** refers to a concept in theosophy and
new age beliefs of angels using their power to influence things on
earth for the sake of fostering peace and preventing harms. It
similar to the christian ideas on angels, but with a more
polytheistic tone of them acting independently and directly, and
often with a person used as an intermediary. While angel healing is
not an explicit concept used by the law side, part of their
aesthetics involves juxtaposing angels and peace signs in a way that
has a theosophical / new age flavor and lens. and so implies that
they took inspiration from new age angel ideas, albeit to a much
smaller degree than normal abrahamic religion. IV explicitly ties ancient of days and law to a theosophical paradigm, which adds to the association.

**Angelization** is the process of becoming an angel. The law side references the jewish myth of enoch and elijah becoming angels, as well as shows zelenin becoming one. Here it is not merely limited to humans though. You see certain angels like haniel or cherub which have appearances that suggest originally being eros / lamassu, but turned into angels. You also see sraosha called an angel despite not changing form.

**Angels** are generally a supernatural being found in various
religions and mythologies. In Abrahamic religions, angels are often
depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries
between God or Heaven and humanity. Other roles of angels include
protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God's tasks.
One of the emphasis-es on angels being the main figures of law is
that even in the worlds where yhvh was gotten rid of by them, or
otherwise purged, the notion of angels still relates to the fact that
they are seen not as independently divine figures, but as
intermediaries between humanity and a higher force. Even if the force
is abstract, like the great will.

In the dead sea scrolls in certain stories angels are known as **watchers**. In megaten however, the demon named watcher is a seperate demon showing up as an eyeball who works under the angels. Angels are also used as a concept
in utilitarianism to explain a hypothetical person with a high level
of knowledge, which megaten may be referencing.

**Anthrosophy.** In anthrosophy, satan, or ahriman is the demon of order, associated with the practical, and mechanical, to contrast lucifer as demon of chaos. It is explicitly equated to technology and utilitarianism, and is described in an interview as a major fact of the plot of SMTII, highlighting why satan has robotic tails attached to him.

**Antichrist** means someone recognized as fulfilling the
Biblical prophecies about one who will oppose Christ and substitute
himself in Christ's place. Messianism has a concept that is based on
this called the anti-messiah or false messiah who will claim to be
the messiah, but will be defeated by the true one. Notably, it was
the center themselves who had this idea and presented a figure of
this nature who ended up defeated, rather than it being something an
opposing group tried. And so this is seen as an aspect which was
misled of them to bring forth deliberately.

**Apocalypse** refers to a concept of a specific end of the
world moment that leads to the world to come. Law sees the events in
many of the games as having specific apocalyptic significance to lead
into the new world. Note that chaos does not view those events the
same way, and so does not actually use the same kind of apocalypse
motifs during the last battle.

**Apocatastasis** is a term which read literally means restoring to the original or primordial position. While it has a variety of meanings, in a christian context it specifically means the belief that even demons or those in hell can be saved. In megaten this is one aspect of the law side. In overclocked, on the law route you see the fallen angel gagyson act orderly. And amane talks about how eventually even demons of chaos can be made to see the light, though for beings of such a nature it is difficult. And that once they are transformed to order they will even be allowed to interact with humans, since such would then no longer be as dangerous. The hallel demons have a tone of appearance that comes off like their original position was restored.

**Arcadia**. In greek mythology arcadia was the domain of Pan,
seen as  avision of peace, and harmony with nature. It is an
equivalent concept to eden, although more associate with being a
realm for spirits rather than humans. The law side in II uses it as a
similar concept as eden in describing its goals for the future.
Showing that they also have some greek influences. Though it is not
clear that they attach any particular religious significance to the
term. The prototype of arcadia that was used notably has a more greek
tone, with less overt christian elements. Arcadia is also the name of their capital city in imagine.

**Archons**. In gnosticism, an archon was one of the servants
of the Demiurge, the "creator god" that stood between the
human race and a transcendent God that could only be reached through
*gnosis*. Though normally concieved of as evil, the idea of the
demiurge actually comes from plato where he was seen as a good being,
and certain gnostics saw the demiurge as good but imperfect. The
connotations of archons and the demiurge is that they are not the
true ultimate source of reality, but mere shapers of the physical
world.

Although yhvh only takes the form of the demiurge when demonized
in the games, gaston's spear says "archon michael" on it,
which implies the term at least occasionally being in use by the law
side as a positive identity. Perhaps reflecting a kind of self
awareness of the law side not being the ultimate creators of reality.
Notably, gnostics often believed in reincarnation unlike regular
christianity, and reincarnation is a staple of the series.

**Arc of the covenant**, although not mentioned by mainline law is the first form of the law aligned final boss of strikers. While the japanese name is the holy torah, japan uses the same word for the torah arc and so it may have been intended to refer to the same idea regardless.

**Ark**. In the book of genesis, noah's ark is a vessel designed by god and built by noah that was used to spare noah from the effects of a worldwide flood. This flood was sent by god to wipe out humanity, because it was seen as having reached a state of corruption beyond which it was likely to return from. In multiple of the games, the law side used arks to put people on to save at a time when they sought to start humanity over after a global apocalypse.

Here the concept of the ark is mixed with that of the genesis creation narrative and the apocalypse where due to the cyclical nature of the world and events it was seen as the possiblity for a new beginning. It is also in II mixed with the hindu concepts of shiva destroying the world due to being too corrupt, where satan takes a form resembling that of shiva.

**Atenism** was an early egyptian monotheistic or henotheistic religion that revolved around the worship of aten, who was depicted as the disc of the sun. Sometimes considered the earliest known form of monotheism. Aspects of this show up in the end of SMTII, because eden is shaped like a pyramid, has cherubim shaped like sphinxes guarding it, and you even fight the sun inside. With the final bosses being depicted as like a composite monotheism.

**Atonement** is a term for making amends for wrongdoing. In
the context of abrahamic religion it refers both to the process of
having your sins forgiven through repentance, and the idea of jesus'
sacrifice allowing for the possibility of forgiveness of sins in
general. While there is no sacrificial moment of metaphysical
significance for law, sraosha in overclocked does talk about humans
being able to atone for sins.

**Bible**. The bible is the holy book of christianity, composed
of the old and new testament, with the old testament being the holy
book of the jews. The messians do have a holy book, however, their
book is not identical to the christian bible, because you see them
cite it at one point, and the citations were different from the real
life bible chapters. However, at times biblical quotes are used, so
knowledge of the bible still exists and is in use. Whether their book
is an edited version of the bible, or is a totally different book is
unknown. But it does seem to have elements resembling the bible,
since the prophecy about the false messiah seems derived from the
antichrist. In one interview they do call it the bible, which implies
that their book may still be referred to as the bible, even if it is
a heavily edited book from what we know as the bible now. The shield
that powers hold is also named after the gospel.

**Bitul** or **self nullification** in kabbalah is the spiritual state associated with the inner experience of chochmah, whereby
 one’s consciousness opens up to a continuous flow of Divine wisdom and
new insight through one’s nullifying their sense of autonomous and
self-sustained being. Bitul is associated with ayin, in the sense of becoming nothing in the omnipresent radiance of god's infinite light. It has a lower or higher form based on whether one is consciously nullifying their ego or is totally absorbed.

In kabbalah the four worlds are each associated with more self differentiation, with the world of atziluth being so overwhelmingly pervaded by god's divine light that it leaves no room for self awareness of one's self as a distinct identity. Bitul in its highest achievement is to raise one's mentality to that of the world of atziluth. The one who has achieved this insight is not aware of himself but is rather absorbed totally in the experience of the revelation. The one who returns from this state is said to have residual properties from it, being ablt to percieve that everything is pervaded by divine light.

This association exists with law for some degree, with lilith referring to giving both your mind and body completely over to god. In SJ the law ending talks about becoming one harmonious spirit, which calls this idea to mind. Although people do preserve self identity. This can express a more positive or beneficial aspect of the lawful mentality, showing a big picture sense of what mental structures are gained by the mental transformation to a collective mentality. This also highlights how this lawful transformation is based heavily in mysticism and a mystical transformation.

**Blasphemy** is the act of insulting or showing contempt or
lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects. In IV, pluto says
that as he was undertaking the work of the lord that attacking him
was blasphemy. And likewise in sj, mastema says that attempts to turn
someone into an angel wouldn't work on the blasphemous. Notably, here
mastema's use of the term blasphemy involves more of an ideological
statement than a religious one. In keeping with the ideological
nature of alignments. Blasphemy being going against the holiness of
order.

**Blessedness** refers to the state of being in God's grace or
favor, and is a common theme throughout the bible. In SMTIV gabriel
uses the term blessed to refer to you on the law route, to convey
this idea of finding favor.

**Blessing** is a term in religion for the infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. In smti you can obtain various items from the messian church that are said to have been blessed. Among them holy water, and sekagi rice.

**Brotherly love,** also known as the **new commandment** in
the biblical sense is an extension of the natural affection
associated with near kin, toward the greater community. Derived from
the command to love your neighbor as yourself. It is meant to be an
unconditional love that loves without receiving love back, and a
willingness to give even to strangers. It is also tied to the idea of
the love of christ, which comes from jesus says to love one another
in the way he has loved you. This emphasis on love and affection is
part of the focus of law's connection to all people.

Note that in strange journey on the law route when the crew start
calling eachother brother and sister this calls to mind actual
historical christian communities who did things like this for reasons
stemming from this christian concept. Making this an explicit
association for law. Likewise, in overclocked an angel uses the word
bretheren to refer to how people should view eachother. In
comparison, many other groups' ethical focus did not emphasize
universal love or altruism to all, such as confucian ethics which
professed strong bonds in only your ingroup. So this ties this
christian element to law's more universal approach. In IV, merkabah
is called the great spirit of goodwill. And he refers to his plan as
the harmony of his goodwill.

This is also related to the christian command to love your
enemies. In this sense, at times the law side is shown refusing to
hate even its enemies. When fighting lilith, the correct response to
her is saying that you don't hate her. And when gore dies on law in
sj, someone on your team says that he should be pitied rather than
hated.

John stuart mill considered that the phrase love your neighbor as
yourself if taken literally would lead to a type of utilitarian
ethics, since equal value is implied to be placed on everyone. Though
historically Christians did not interpret it this way in the past,
the messians' utilitarian ethics imply a sense of viewing it in this
way.

**Cao dai** is a syncretic religion composed of confucianism, taoism, buddhism, and catholicism. It revolves around a semi-monotheistic god known as cao dai presiding over samsara helping to free humanity from it. While it is not a major facet of law, the avatar of god shaddai seems to be based on cao dai. In keeping with the modern tendency of some eastern traditions to take inspiration from western monotheism.

**Chaos and rectification**. Also called tohu and tikkun. is a
concept in kabbalah that refers to how the primal universe was
necessarily one of chaos that would be restored to order over time.
And that this was in some sense a necessary or expected result of it
being a limited world. In megaten, this seems to be an explanation in
some contexts for how yhvh can pass off being an eternal god despite
not having always existed. That the primal chaos is meant to restore
the divine order, thus manifesting him over time. In general law's
way of referring to ethics as if perfecting or restoring an imperfect
system may be based on this in general.

**Chosen people**. Throughout history, various groups of people
have considered themselves to be chosen people by a deity for a
purpose, such as to act as the deity's agent on earth. In
monotheistic faiths references to God are used in constructs such as
"God's Chosen People". In the old testament this was used
to refer to jews as a group and Christians in contrast often think
christianity exists to replace the idea of the jews as god's chosen.
In megaten, the chosen refers to those who are saved during
cataclysmic events when not all are going to be. In IV you and
jonathan are also referred to as chosen when undertaking gabriel's
mission for you.

**Christian mysticism** refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. Mysticism is a large basis of the law side, with the transformations the charcters undergo often having a mystical bent, resembling the more heretical forms such as quietism. While the series has a large undercurrent of kabbalah influencing its mystical tone, the overall aesthetics imply more primarily a continuation from christianity that incorporated these things.

**Christian Socialism / Christian Communism** Christian
socialism is a form of religious socialism based on the teachings of
Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe capitalism to be idolatrous
and rooted in greed, one of the deadly sins, saying that this greed is a cause of inequality. It is often a form of ethical socialism that uses
christian inspired ethics as a basis. And so makes sense to compare
with law even if it is not explicitly christian per-say.

Many Christian communists assert that evidence from the
Bible suggests that the first Christians, including the
Apostles, professed or established their own proto-communist society.
for example: “And all those who had believed were together, and had
all things in common; and they began selling their property and
possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have
need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals
together” (Acts 2:44–46).

**Christopaganism** is a term for pagan religions that encorporate elements from christianity. Or for pagan practices that survived after a culture nominally converted to christianity. While law is less pagan than the other sides, having a more big picture semi monotheistic tone, elements of it are still resembling this. Since it has many pagan gods working for it, and yhvh gets called "great father" which comes off similar to being seen as an all father type of pantheon head. And the fact that even law turns against him at times shows that he is ultimately not seen as a true monotheistic being. But in some ways more of a pantheon head, with "god" collectively being more of a pantheistic world essence. In II they even call it the hebrew pantheon.

**Church**. A church building or church, is a building used for
Christian religious activities, particularly for Christian worship
services. The term is often used by Christians to refer to the
physical buildings where they worship, but it is sometimes used (by
analogy) to refer to buildings of other religions also. It can also
be a term for the body of christians as a whole. Both uses are
however rather modern, replacing earlier terms such as ekklesia,
which means something more like assembly.

Law's buildings tend to look primarily like christian churches,
although with some outside influences such as lotus symbols within.
Law at times calls itself a church, though all the sides at times use
the word church to refer to themselves. The word **monastery** is
also used in IV to refer to the church, which is a term for the
dwelling of monks. And so monks are being conflated with priests
here, which implies less emphasis on priests as a distinct class.
They also use the word **cathedral**, which is a term for the
principle church of a diocese, when creating the primary church for
the summoning of yhvh in smti.

**Communion** is the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts
and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or
spiritual level. For instance, The communion of saints is the
relationship that, according to the belief of Christians, exists
between them as people made holy by their link with Christ. That this
relationship extends not only to those still in earthly life, but
also to those in heaven. It also became associated with the taking
and sharing of bread and wine which became seen as a sacramental
communion. Although law is never shown using the term for bread and
wine, the word communion is given special religious significance of
intimate spiritual fellowship, and in strange journey altars were
created for this purpose.

**Confession**. Although not otherwise mentioned, one of the items in iv percieved by the samurai suggests the existence of confession, due to being confused for a confessional.

**Contributionism** refers to a pantheistic conception of
utilitarianism that sees the collective of reality as the manifest
aspect of god, and so maximizing value can be defined in pantheistic
top down terms relating to improving the overall value in reality.
While this term is rather obscure, and so the specific term may not
have been a direct basis for the side, law's side does have an
approach that closely resembles this, and so it is a useful
descriptor as a basis. Ancient of days in IV using language that
directly implies something like this.

**Collective pantheism** is the idea that only the summation of
reality is properly divine, and individual things only have or
experience divinity if any as a reflection or piece of this absolute.
This is something that has a tone leaning more to law. Though
notably, law is not merely pantheistic, but more panentheistic. In IV ancient of days even uses the word collective to describe it.

**Cross**. The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the
instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus, is the best-known symbol of
Christianity. If the body of jesus is on it it is known as a
**crucifix**. The most common shape of the christian cross is the
latin cross with unequal arms. The **crucifixion** is often
ascribed a significant place in christianity, being seen as something
that redeems mankind's sins. In-game however, while the cross itself
(without body) is the main symbol of the messians, they do not place
metaphysical significance on the sacrifice of jesus, nor do later
messiahs have any element of a need to replicate it. To them, the
cross seems to be more of a vague symbol of sacrifice. Which has
religious significance of being willing to sacrifice if necessary. Law hero is seen on a cross only in a vision by the protagonist of smti.

**Crusades** are specially sanctioned military campaigns for
religious purposes. Although law has a mostly pacifistic aspect, they
consider the events that they undertook during the apocalypse to
control the future to have religious significance. They also at times
refer to the temple knights as the knights templar, which is a
historical crusading unit that is also the basis of many conspiracy
theories.

**Death of God theology** is a predominately Christian
theological movement in which the monotheistic concept of God is
considered nonexistent, a thing realized necessarily later in
humanity's development, or in more radical cases that God literally
died during the crucifixion. (alternately, not declared nonexistant
but simply not able to be relied on as definitely existent) Sometimes
it overlaps with pantheism, saying that the language of god does refer
to something real, saying that god is not a tangible entity, but
wholly immanent in the world. It considers itself a close ally of
christian socialism, often implying that the realization of God's
absence is a call to action for humanity to radically engage in the
acts of wealth redistribution and taking care of the weak that Jesus
laid out due to there being no cosmic justice that will ensure that it
gets done.

The basis of the death of god is the loss of an assured absolute
sense of meaning, and by extension the realization of a need for
people to find meaning in reality themselves. While the concept of
the death of god applies to all the alignments, the specific concept
of death of god theology that applies it to a post christian paradigm
is more tied to law specifically. Especially in games like II and
redux where the concepts and tone of the church are preserved even
after one defeats yhvh, realizing that he is not the sole source of
value. In smt nine it highlghts how a trend began within messianism called neo messianism that rejected yhvh as an absolute basis for justification, and sought to work on the world of law outside of him.

**Dispassion** is a term used by the eastern orthodox to refer
to a state of being free from passions, and maintaining calm and self
control. Saying that it is the end goal of ascetic practice. It is
obviously a large basis of law, though notably the term and concept
is not well known in christianity, since only the eastern orthodox
formulated it into a specific doctrine. In IV a large basis of the
law endings are the transformation of your character to one with a
dispassionate mentality, though it also shows up in other games like
with law hero, or zelenin's transformation, or with merkabah. And in
sjs law ending they talk about the mentality freeing people from
obsessive demonic ambitions.

**Divine coucil**. A Divine Council is an assembly of deities over which a higher-level god presides. They exist in various religions, more often polytheistic ones. Law is implied to have aspects that function like this, often which function independently of yhvh. In IV gabriel calls mastema a "disgrace to our order" implying some type of collective.

**Divine judgment** means the judgment of God or other supreme
beings within a religion. It can apply either to individuals, or
groups, or at some times to the world as a whole. Some Christian
denominations consider the Second Coming of Christ to be the final
and eternal judgment by God of the people in every nation resulting
in the glorification of some and the punishment of others. During the
apocalypse, the law side often makes a divine judgement, choosing
which saved will begin the new world. Though notably this is not a
judgement of all souls, but merely those alive on earth at the time.
What souls are allowed entry into heaven, or even how much of that is
chosen vs the natural result of reincarnating there being left more
ambiguous.

**Divine light**. In theology, the divine light is an aspect of
divine presence, specifically an unknown and mysterious ability of
God, angels, or human beings to express themselves communicatively
through spiritual means, rather than through physical capacities.
Abrahamic religion especially associates god with the idea of light.
In John 8:12, Christ proclaims "I am the light of the world",
bringing the Divine Light to mankind. This light is not seen as a
mere metaphor, but certain figures are seen as tangibly emitting
light at times. In the games, this light is seen as a tangible thing,
often emanating from holy figures. A notable example is in the law
ending of strange journey where divine light flooded the world and
purged the demons. However, a few lawful beings are also associated
with darkness, such as merkabah who has a half dark image. This tying
to kabbalistic dualistic aspects. Though merkabah still talks about
the light within him, and can use it to lower your accuracy. In the kabbalah the divine light is known as **ohr**.

**Divine nothing** or **silent desert** is a term used to refer to the heretical christian mystic meister echkart's conception of the godhead. Which is described as the god over god, and of which was said "The woul wants to penetrate to the silent desert where not a trace of
distinction is to be seen, neither Father nor Son nor Holy Spirit." He taught that above the tangible persons of god the true essence of the godhead was in essence describable as empty due to lacking distinction or properties, with the beings existing only as derivative. Likewise, beings who existed in the world were seen as lacking substance (called the pure nothing), because only the power of being associated with god gives them substance. And it was through these beings that god was given identity. Various people interpreted his works in different ways, depending to what degree they saw it as more or less theistic.

While meister eckhart accepted external worship of god as valid, he considered that within each person's soul lied an uncreated aspect that was one with god, and was emanated from this unity. And so supported a mystcal contemplation which brought you into mystical union. This was tied to something he called "disintrest," which was an inner contemplation and negation of all external forms and concepts until only awareness of god remained. Saying that when the soul achieves this, it loses its concept of self identity, and is in a sense reduced to nothing. This was not meant to detatch one from the world however, but ultimately was a path gone through after which one would return, and utilize this newfound understanding of the divine nothing to act in accord with morality.

His concept of disinterest resembles that of stoicism or buddhism in which one's serene detatchment was used not to be apathetic, but to make it easier to act for others. Likewise, the concept of the divine nothing in conjunction with the human concept of pure nothing were compared with the buddhist concept of sunyata, where they were a major aspect in interreligious dialogue, as well as inspiring many other traditions like theosophy.

This concept of the divine nothing is relevant to law for various reasons. Most notably, in SMTII, you focus on the essence of the empty god. In the visionary items, zayin is given a paradoxical statement both about how there is no god, but that god is everything. Tying to meister eckhart's emphasis on both negation and affirmation. And zayin going against yhvh while preserving the concept of the god over god likewise shifts the focus to the silent desert of the divine nothing. In later games like iv the concept of sunyata is used to describe god's nature, and in nocturne the lawful mentality is more explicitly tied to emptiness. Likewise, the theosophical concept of god being manifest only through avatars in reality that derives from eckhart ties to the depiction of god in-game as manifested only through limited faces of god.

**Divine will**. The will of God, divine will, or God's plan is
the concept of a God having a plan for humanity, or god's overall
goals. Ascribing a volition or a plan to a God usually implies a
sentient god. Although the term god's plan is used to refer to the
goals of yhvh in the games, often which involve destruction and
rebirth, the concept of the divine will itself is used for the great
will. And in a few cases like in apocalypse the term divine will is used directly. But notably, the great will is not seen as an independently
sentient entity, but as an abstract existence that is seen as even
higher than yhvh. In what sense the mystical will of the great will
exists is left ambiguous at times. But it is still seen as something
that people have behind them, and as a concept utilized for lawful
purposes. Various beings refer to themself as following the will of
the lord. Referring to this divine will.

**Divine law** is any law that is understood as deriving from a
transcendent source, such as the will of God or gods, in contrast to
man-made law. Divine laws are typically regarded as superior to
man-made laws. They are generally accorded greater authority, and
cannot be changed by human authorities. Although its usage of the
concept if much more vague, the law side of course literally has the
word law worked into its name, and occasionally uses language to
refer to a concept of divine law. The ancient of days says that the
dispensation of the universe is collective. Dispensation here being a
word for law. And so it is implicating it as a kind of unchanging
divine law. Zayin in II talks about the conflict between imperfect
contingent laws, and the ideal laws. Implying the latter as having a
transcendental source. Although the law side does not actually use
the word law that often, they do occasionally refer to their ethics
in this means.

**Eden** in christianity and judaism refers both to the
original place humans lived in as well as to the idea of a "new"
eden in the world to come. Law uses this as a motif since the garden
of eden was a literal state humans were created in at one point where
they had an orderly mentality, but it was upset by lucifer. and so
they seek to restore this orientation away from selfishness in the
future. It also refers to a literal place in heaven in the games.

**Ein Sof** is the name for the true essence of the godhead. It
it seen as beyond any form of being able to be conceived of at all,
such that it is improper to even say it “exists”in the ordinary
sense, or is an entity or that you can know directly about it in any
sense. With god only being able to be known via his avatar adam
kadmon. This is a large (though not exclusive) inspiration for the
great will, especially since yhvh tries to present himself as the
adam kadmon to the ein sof. And kabbalic symbology is one of the
primary basis-es used to describe god in the games. Notably, the
great will is not seen as an independently sentient being, but as an
abstract divine will. Yhvh (or shekinah) provides the basis for it to
be seen as a distinct being or be worshiped, but these are not an
absolute basis of the religion, which is what leads to even the
angels purging their yhvh in many universes. More information about
this, and all kabbalah related things on the kabbalah page.

**Enlightenment** is a term used in many religions that refers
to the abstract concept of a type of spiritual awakening to truth.
For the law side, it is at times referred to the lawful mentality,
regardless of whether one takes it willingly or is suddenly awakened
to it. In strange journey you hear a crewmember talk about the crew
becoming enlightened.

**Esoteric christianity** is a term for the historical heterodox Christian traditions which contained both magic and mysticism. Usually these involved a form of initiation into certain mystical secrets. It is considered to have been somewhat inspired by gnosticism, and contains certain gnostic elements such as reincarnation and inner development. Later ideas such as rosicrucianism, and alchemy were said to emerge as forms of it.

The main goal of Esoteric Christianity is to directly learn the mysteries of God, and to rise to higher consciousness in the understanding of God's relationship to individual consciousness. In Esoteric Christianity, the term theurgy is used for the practice of trying to gain the knowledge of one's higher self, or Inner God, to teach one spiritual truths and wisdom from God that one could not learn from man.

Esoteric christianity involved various mystical practices, notably that of demon or angel summoning, the former of which was called goetia, and the latter of which was lumped in with the idea of theurgy. Various members argued about the appropriateness of certain practices, and whether demon summoning should be forbidden, even if they were bound by the divine names of god.

Esoteric christianity forms a large basis of the law side in game. The highest developments of certain esoteric traditions were referred to as magus and adept, which is the term for the magic units of the messians. Zelenin is later called a magus as well, making it a series-wide association. The entire idea of them making use of magic and demon summoning using the historical aesthetics, as well as the more specific question of whether making specifically use of only angels is preferable ties to it. And the forms of transformation that they seek while still alive blurs the lines between Christian afterlife and esoteric mysticism tradition. As well as aknowledging reincarnation, which exists in their world. Zayin's realization of inner divinity also ties to the idea of mystical accomplishment.

In essence, the law side shows a situation where these esoteric heterodox teachings have overtaken normal abrahamic religion in general. And became mixed into a post-christian paradigm, while still retaining Christian aesthetics. In keeping with the series' large focus on mysticism in general.

**Eternal** means lasting or existing forever; without end or
beginning.To contrast chaos' focus on the ephemeral, law focuses on
the eternal. Highlighting that the law and god are forever. Though
notably yhvh is not forever, being a face of god that can die,
despite often when corrupt seeing himself as that way. Law treats
this like a moral dynamic, seeking to have the tangible world of
peace last forever, or long enough to reflect eternity.

**Eucharist.** The Eucharist (also called **Holy Communion**
or the **Lord's Supper**, among other names) is a Christian rite
of partaking in bread and wine that is considered a sacrament in most
churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New
Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last
Supper; giving his disciples bread and wine during the Passover meal.
Through the Eucharistic celebration Christians remember both Christ's
sacrifice of himself on the cross and his commission of the apostles
at the Last Supper.

While the law side is not explicitly seen doing this, the demon
tokisada shows it a a symbol on his banner, acknowledged it as a
thing in that universe. And since law draws heavily from
christianity, they are likely implied to have an analogue of it in
some of their practices. Notably though, since messianism does not
consider jesus to be a unique being, they likely view it as merely a
spiritual symbol. By extension they likely do not view their services
as a mass in the catholic or orthodox sense, despite having a
catholic aesthetic. Since they don't treat baptism as being
inherently required either it seems that they do not necessarily view
there as being distinct sacraments.

**Exotericism** is religious doctrines designed to be able to
be understood and followed by the general public. Since law offers
salvation to any it is designed for any to be able to join. It is
contrasted against the esoteric doctrines of chaos designed for only
the superior to be able to practice.

**Faith** is confidence or trust in a particular system or
religious belief, in which faith may equate to confidence based on
some perceived degree of warrant. The concept of faith comes into
play in megaten in which the system of order is something that it is
believed you should be able to have faith in, under the assumption
that it can deliver what it promises. This contrasts with chaos, in
which you are called to rely on yourself, rather than being able to
expect protection from the system.

**Genesis** is a term for the first book in the bible. Being literally a term for the origins of something or the bringing forth of it. In iv, in a side mission god refers to the birth of a new humanity as genesis. Notably here, this term is being used for the beginning of a new period of time of human existence and not merely the creation of the world itself. Due to the at times cyclcal nature of the events, genesis and the story of noah's ark are lumped together here, with genesis being a term for any new beginning.

**Gesture of benediction** refers to a hand sign seen in christian iconography that has the last two fingers lowered and the others raised when the hand is raised for blessing. This symbol of blessing derives from roman orators who would use hand signals to highlight things they were going to say. It is also a christogram that spells the name of christ. And is commonly seen as a hand symbol made by religious figures in many religious icons. In his updated artwork, law hero is seen making this pose.

**Godhead** is a term for the divinity or substance (ousia) of
the Christian God, the substantial impersonal being of God, as
opposed to the tangible person or persons of god; in
other words, the Godhead refers to the "what" of God, and
God refers to the "who" of God. It is a term
similar to the concept of the "absolute" in philosophy.
Mysticism is often defined as the practice of trying to relate to the
impersonal essence of god rather than the persons of god. Some forms
of mysticism even hold that the godhead is not merely a different
term from the persons of god, but that the essence is "above"
god in a sense. In megaten it follows such a line of thought, with
yhvh not being a part of the godhead in itself, which is the axiom /
great will. And mem aleph being an equivalent concept for the earth. While all sides accept the existence of the axiom obviously, it is mainly law who views it as a godhead.

**Great commandment** is a term used in christianity for the
first of two commands given by jesus. In Mark, when asked "which
is the great commandment in the law?", the Greek New Testament
reports that Jesus answered, "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God,
The Lord is One; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", before also
referring to a second commandment, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself." Most Christian denominations consider
these two commandments to be the core of correct Christian lifestyle.

Messians obviously use language that prioritizes god to this
degreee. However, while non self aware early messians saw god to be
identical to the face of yhvh, the more expansive realization of god
as everything ultimately merged these two commandments into one.
Because god and the collective of neighbors are now identified as the
same thing.

**Hamartiology** is the study of sin. Historical christian theologians have understood the idea of sin in different ways, be it in legal terms as if people were in an implicit contract with god, or in love based terms in terms of deviation. The concept of sin is relevant to law, being used as an overlay of its ethics, and you even see figures develop their views on it as some of the plots go on, such as the realization that yhvh can be accused of sin and judged.

**Harmony**. Although harmony as a religio-spiritual concept is more associated with neutral, it does show up as a term a few times for law, such as in iv where jonathan calls the world of law the hermony of his goodwill. Harmony relates to harmonizing people to their surroundings, and so in a sense an aspect of law is getting people more on the same page so there will be less conflict.

**Hebdomad** is a term in gnosticism for the seven world creating archons. The avatars of god seem heavily based on this, since their names, being different names of god, overlap with the naming schema of the hebdomad.

**Henosis** and **theosis**. Henosis is the classical Greek
word for mystical "oneness", "union" or "unity."
In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is
union with what is fundamental in reality: the One, the Source, or
Monad. It is often used to describe mystical traditions in general
that involve a sense of absorption into the divine. A lesser version
of it that is in use by orthodox christianity is theosis, which is
the sharing of god's nature in heaven without becoming one with its
essence.

These ties into ideas, especially likein the added scene of II of
becoming a “face” of God. And likewise, the ending of Strange
Journey where everyone becomes part of the holy spirit. Not
havingyour own divinity, but being seen as an extension of God's
divinity.This being perhaps an explanation for how the avatars
function, andperhaps even YHVH to an extent, being an extra special
case ofcontainment of some kind of inherent inner divinity of the
largerabstract sense of the ordered properties of the great will that
theyare tuning into. The different levels contextualize the different
degree of goals upheld by law at different times. Though notably, all
sides seek at least some degree of mystical unity.

**Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn** was an occult secret society from the late 1800s heavily focused on theurgy and hermetic qabalah. It became the main inspiration for occult groups since this time. It is a major inspiration for the messians in game, as well as the occult magic used in the game in general. The messians have several units whose names come from the initiation levels of the golden dawn. From lowest to highest these being neophyte, zealot, adept, and magus. The highest level not explicitly named in-game being Ipsissimus. In SMTII two of these units explicitly use the banner of the east, a golden dawn symbol. In addition, many of the angels introduced in II correspond to the angels the golden dawn associates with the sephirot. And the use of crosses as symbols mixed with a hermetic qabalist conception of god matches closely.

**Hermetic Qabalah** is the form of kabbalah developed by the hermetic order of the golden dawn. It mixes polytheistic elements into the kabbalah, as well as the idea of spiritual evolution. Due to law being heavily based on the golden dawn, their kabbalic aspects likewise bear these connotations.

**High church** is church practices which have a high emphasis on ritual, liturgy, and accoutrements in worship. It is contrasted against low church, which is more informal, has less specific vestments, and is more like a non-structured prayer service. Messianism leans more to high church practices, although its postmodern nature makes it less high than real christian churches who see the rituals as absolutes.

**Holy grail** is a term for a mystical artifact that was interpretedas a wide variety of things that could grant great power. Later the interpretation solidified on the idea that it was the cup of christ. In megaten it doesn't get delineated as clearly the cup of christ, merely an artifact of great significance. In IV the angels take dagda's cauldren thinking it is the holy grail. Similarly, in p5 it is a law leaning being.

**Holy land** in the bible refers to the land of israel. In a
more limited sense, **holy ground** refers to any location deemed
holy or sacred. In SMTIV they refer to shene duque as a holy land.
Saying that it is a place humans are forbidden to enter without
divine permission. Later, in the law ending, they say that mikado eventually becomes known as a holy land as the new world starts and people begin spreading out from it. The cathedral in smti is also referred to as a messian holy land.

**Holy water** is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from Christianity to Sikhism. The use of holy water as a sacramental for protection against evil is common among Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Christians. In SMTI holy water is one of the items you can obtain from the messian church, stated to have been blessed. It functtions as an element light exorcism skill.

**Impeccability** is the absence of sin. God is logically
considered incapable of sin, it being against his own nature. But
humans are seen as gaining the gift of impeccability when in heaven
and seeing god's face. In megaten, one of the goals of law as stated
by amane is not a world where evil is punished, but one where evil
does not exist. The lawful goal of transforming humanity to a
peaceful structure is seen as one that would make true evil very
difficult. Not necessarily that no one ever does anything wrong, but
that as a collective it can be minimized enough so as not to be an
issue. Notably however, in megaten, that yhvh is not considered incapable of wrongdoing by more aware messians.

**Indulgence**. In catholicism an indulgence is a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins in purgatory. Indulgences are generally offered in exchange for doing certain offerings like specific prayers. In smti you can get an item called indulgence from the church which causes all non boss enemies to leave. If it also has a use related to the original meaning, one's rebirth is tied mainly to karma in megaten, so a spritual thing that potentially affects this in a more positive direction would be useful. But what its specific use is is unknown.

**Intercession of the Spirit** is the Christian belief that the
Holy Spirit helps and guides believers who search for God in their
hearts. In various games like Iv and SJ the holy spirit is described
as doing this for law leaning figures. Even for the neutral path in
SJ you are told that the holy spirit will be present.

**Kabbalah** is a system of mysticism made by late middle ages
Jews based heavily on neoplatonic ideas, It involves the idea that
the ineffable godhead is beyond comprehension, but emanates into
reality a series of emanations that are its manifested aspects. It is
one of the biggest inspirations the series is based on and a core
aspect for understanding it, and especially yhvh's place in the law
side. When viewed in a christian context it is often referred to as **cabbala**. And the law side merges the kabbalah heavily with christian mysticism also. More information on the kabbalah page.

**Kakure Kirishitan** is a term to refer to christianity as it existed in old japan when it was illegal, punishable by death. Since it was driven underground it had lost contact with the catholic church it derived from, and over time became a syncretic sect, including aspects of ancestor worship of their earlier japanese martyrs, and veneration of kami. Although the games don't overtly reference this, in an interview for apocalypse they talk about how it existed in the backstory, and set up the events of the game. And since the law side is sometimes seen with amatsukami working with angels, and influenced by a japanese perspective it implicitly has elements of japanese christianity.

**Kannushi**. A kannushi is the person responsible for the
maintenance of a Shinto shrine as well as for leading worship of a
given kami, also known as a shinto priest. While the idea of shinto
is primarily associated with neutral, law hero's hat is a shinto
eboshi, which in conjunction with his robes being eastern gives a
tone of law having some shinto elements. Notably, the amatsukami are
depicted as law leaning in many of the games, varying between law and
neutral, which also gives a shinto tone. In strange journey, the
yatagarasu was one of the major law figures guarding the cosmic eggs.
Notably however, none of law's churches look shinto inspired.

**Kenosis** is a term that has various meanings in christian theology. Although not its primary meaning, one of its meanings is to "empty" yourself of the aspects of your human will that oppose the divine in order to unite with the divine will. While some forms of christiantiy like the orthodox preach this, some mystics who did were deemed heretical in terms of the extent they saw it as potentially going, such as the quietists. This term is important in christian-buddhist dialogue where it is used to compare with the buddhist concept of sunyata. This term has relevance for law in that talking about individuals losing themself in the name of the "empty" breath of god is an accusation laid against them. It is also related to the kabbalic term bitul.

**Kneeling** is a basic position where one or both knees
touch the ground. It is a common practice in christian religion aimed
towards holy figures. While law figures are rarely seen doing this,
the term is used a few times as an expression of submission, such as
by metatron in overclocked, implying that the concept is in use.

**Knowledge of good and evil** refers to the knowledge gained
by adam when eating from the tree of knowledge in the bible. This
knowledge was depicted as a bad thing to obtain, giving him an
orientation towards evil action. In the context of megaten, this
refers to a psychological orientation that allows one to readily
consider and act on selfish and harmful actions that was given
mystically by lucifer. The law side often seeks to overcome or
eradicate this from human nature, shifting humanity to a more
peaceful nature.

**kuni-yuzuri** or "Transfer of the land" was a mythological event in Japanese prehistory, which relates the story of how the rulership of Japan passed from the earthly *kami* (*kunitsukami*) to the *kami* of Heaven (*amatsukami*) and their eventual descendants, the Imperial House of Japan. While this aspect of shinto shows up in the games in general, it is equated to law especially in overclocked, with a recreation of it when okuninushi passes over the spiritual paradigm from himself to the messiah.

**Love of god** is an important concept in judaism and
christianity. The love of god is implied to be in a constant,
unending, and eternal state for all beings. Although the words
compassion or affection are generally used instead of the word love,
various law figures talk about the basis of god's caring being the
underpinning of the transformation of the world for the sake of
humans. And in apocalypse, yhvh is depicted as saying he has love for
all beings, being willing to forgive easily.

Note that in terms of law, this is not an absolute. When yhvh is not present, this aspect is seen as heavily differently, due to the great will being too abstract to be seen as inherently loving. In SMTII zayin has the realization that
god is not good, but is everything. Which can tie to the fact that
the mystical absolute doesn't have tangible properties in the way its
avatars might. So the love aspect in terms of normal law when yhvh is absent is not an absolute law flowing from above, but a network of it between people as conflated with the collective. Strange journey on law for example talking about all humanity becoming a harmonious spirit.

**Magi** is a term that originally denoted a priest of zoroastrianism, but later came to be a term for practitioners of astronomy/astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. One of the messian units is called magus or magi, delineating that while the term technically means sorcerer, the connotations are meant to mean something more like sage, and that the are high ranked church members. While they do have magic abilities, what occult knowledge they are sages in is left ambiguous. In II the magus is called adept. Zelenin also gets referred to as a magus in strange journey after transforming.

**Martyrdom**. A martyr is someone who suffers death for the
sake of a goal or cause, most specifically when the death is chosen
willingly and is based on refusing to repent the cause. In
christianity, martyrdom has a heavy focus, with martyrs being seen as
some of the highest saints due to the willingness to self sacrifice.
In IV, gabriel refers to you sacrificing yourself for the goals of
law to be martyrdom. And so the concept of martyrs is relevant to
them. To law, a high goal is this willingness to sacrifice yourself
when necessary for the greater good, with the figures in the
messianic role often taking on such a duty.

**Megiddo** in the bible is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or a symbolic location. The term is also used in a generic sense to refer to any end of the world scenario. It is where the term Armageddon derives from. In SMTII its name is used in the megiddo ark to specify the end times. It also shows up as a name for almighty skills.

**Merkabah mysticism** is a school of early Jewish mysticism
from before the time of the kabbalah centered on visions such as
those found in the Book of Ezekiel concerning stories of ascents
(referred to paradoxically as descending) to the heavenly palaces and
the Throne of God. The mysticism revolved around the merkabah as a
kind of vessel to come face to face with god. Though the games don't
mention it directly, the emphasis places on merkabah as a figure
likely implies something of this nature as an underlying element.
Which likely ties to how in apocalypse they refer to seeing merkabah
as god descending. Merkabah mysticism also influenced theosophy, where the merkabah is said to be a divine vehicle ascended masters use to interact with those in higher realms.

**Messianic judaism** is a term for a syncretic beleif that combines christianity and judaism. One of its main symbols is the cross and jewish star overlaid. Messianism has aspects of this, both in that it uses that as a major symbol, and uses messianism in its primary title. And is based on merging those together more. Though messianism is much more christian than jewish.

**Messianism** is the belief in the advent of a messiah who
acts as the savior or liberator of a group of people. Religions with
a messiah concept include Zoroastrianism (Saoshyant), Judaism (the
Mashiach), Buddhism (Maitreya), Hinduism (Kalki), Taoism (Li Hong),
among others. In Judaism, the messiah will be a future Jewish king
from the line of David and redeemer of the Jewish people and
humanity. In Christianity Jesus is the messiah. The world of peace
created by the final acts of the messiah is known as the **messianic**
age**.**

While in christianity jesus was seen as having undergone a
sacrifice that in some sense redeemed humanity, notably in messianism
no particular metaphysical significance is placed on the messiah in
this way (although they did create an item called the jesus armor). They are seen as more of a leader and a symbol, and at
times a judge, than as someone who specifically redeemed humanity in
an abstract sense. Even in universes like that of apocalypse with a
"corrupt" version of yhvh who specifically believes in
justification by faith his version of this involves the faith to be
in himself directly, without any mention of the messiah.

While the concept of a specific god given messian shows up in
religions, it also has a more secular format known as messianicity or
the messianic that highlights the underlying basis of the idea.
Figures like walter benjamin and derrida talk about the underling
basis of messianicity that gives rise to messianic beliefs.
Messianicity talks about the archetype of a future ideal world where
things are solved, and a coming force of transformation. Derrida
supports this as an archetpyical orientation to have even outside of
religion, not because you think it is a real thing that is
necessarily going to happen, but as an archetype that influences
praxis. That history is influenced by a kind of messianic telos
towards the messianic time, and underlying archetype of perfection.

It ties to an abstract concept of faith that underlies action. To
speak to the other is to request them to believe in you. This
universal structure of faith is an undeconstructible that Derrida
calls the messianic structure or messianicity. It is an orientation
of being open to the future, requiring waiting for the other to come.
This universal structure of the promise, of the expectation for the
future, for the coming, and the factthat this expectation of the
coming has to do with justice are the building blocks of this
archetype, highlighting why messianism shows up in religion. This
messianic structure ties to religion as a process of endless waiting.
An openness to this abstract future. He considers this mentality
something that can be made use of in a tangible way in a secular
format. Though no tangible messiah may appear, this process of faith
in the other, and of the archetype of perfection underlies action,
giving a telos to move towards. Noting that secular concepts of
utopia are analogous to the religious versions.

The messianic is also one of the key figuresof Benjamin’s entire
thought. For Benjamin, the messianic isneither about a messian*ism*,
a religion, nor a secularversion of theology; rather, it is the
paradoxical “account” of anon-accountable “something” within
history and profane life –neither reducible to the field of science
nor to the ‘misty realm’of mysticism. This ‘something’ is not
about an esoteric ‘secret’knowledge but concerns a structural
dislocation, a deviation, an*Entstellung* that prevents the
order of the profane frombeing closed as a self-totalizing sphere.

Messianism is of course so important to the law side that they use
it as the basis of their name. Though looking primarily christian,
they have expanded beyond christianity into a post christian religion
that upholds the messianic archetype not as something filled by jesus
alone, but as an abstract role that can be undertaken by multiple
people at different times. As such, they are influenced both by
religious messianisms as well as the more generic concept of the
messianic structure. Gabriel even talks about becoming shepherds of
the lost flock in keeping with the depiction of jesus as the good
shepherd. In smt nine it reveals that some messians who move past reliance on god for the world of law seeking to instead bring it into action themselves are known as neo messians.

**Millennialism** is a belief advanced by some religious
denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior
to the final judgment and future eternal state of the "World to
Come". Christianity and Judaism have both produced messianic
movements from time to time which featured millennialist teachings.
In megaten this obviously is an element of the basis of the
**millennial reign**, which is used as a term for the creation of
the lawful world in I, II, and IV. A more generic term for a coming
transformation of society in this way is **millenarianism.**Note that law's use of these concepts are not merely based on western religion, but also more heavily based on the yonaoshi aspects of new japanese religions.

**Minimalism** refers to the process of choosing to simplify
one's lifestyle in order to avoid certain unnecessary aspects. This
can be done for a variety of reasons, such as ecological, economic,
spiritual, aesthetic, or to uphold a peaceable mentality. It also
crosses over heavily with the idea of simple living. Law has an
element of minimalism in order to discourage any indulgence that
comes at the expense of the big picture. With in certain games even
using a minimalist aesthetic to capture this dynamic.

**Missionary**. A missionary is a member of a religious group
sent into an area to proselytize or perform ministries of service,
such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and
economic development. The word was used in light of its biblical
usage; in the Latin translation of the Bible, Christ uses the word
when sending the disciples to preach The gospel in his name. The term
is most commonly used for Christian missions, but can be used for any
creed or ideology. In the pce version of smti there is a messian unit
named missionary. And in II you see a priest acting as one.

**Modernism** in a catholic context refers to the religious tendency to formulate new doctrines based on enlightenment ideals, often forgoing tradition. It is seen as heretical in nature. Messianism of course is based on a modernist trend that extends and develops theology into a new format.

**Monk**. A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism
by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A
monk may be a person who decides to dedicate his life to serving all
other living beings, or to be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to
leave mainstream society and live his or her life in prayer and
contemplation. While all the sides have some element of monasticism,
law is notable for the fact that despite the catholic aesthetic it
seems to conflate monks and priests together, with monks being the
primary clergy in IV. This actually ties to japanese influence due to
the fact that japanese zen monks are often called priests due to not
taking all of the monastic vows of other buddhist monks. Note that in
iv the head monk's robe looks more buddhist inspired. And also in iv
it shows that monks and nuns are treated as interchangeable and stay
in the same monastery. Also, in Iv it shows that monks are allowed to be married, which likewise is similar to zen monks.

**Moral influence theory of atonement** refers to an
interpretation of the death of jesus not as any particular
metaphysical need to allow forgiveness of sins, but as an exemplar of
sacrifice in order to help transform humanity towards god. As law
does not place metaphysical significance on the death of the messiah,
this applies not only for jesus himself, but for later messiahs also.
In IV especially it shows that the messiah was turned into a symbol
for the new world. In overclocked honda even refers to the nature of
god as using one to set an example for many.

**Neo-adamism** refers to a series of groups who sought to
restore humanity to the sense of adam's innocence. They had various
practices such as nudism or the rejection of marriage, seeing it as
something that wouldn't exist in an edenic state, and believed they
could restore this state with a sensuous mysticism, referring to
their church as paradise. Although in a downplayed sense, law has
aspects of this in its emphasis of the restoration of humanity's
original state. Notably, in a world of law figures seem to be more
lenient about nudity and relationship arrangements, since in the
world of law it would be structured to mitigate potential negatives.
This being why angels among themselves often don't wear clothes, and
in arcadia, the prototype of the new world people seemed to be
wearing more revealing outfits.

**New age** is a term that shows up both in esoteric and secular beliefs to refer to the idea of a dawning new era for humanity. In a spiritual sense it shows up in many traditions that highligh that some kind of spritual shift is upcoming that will lead to a transformation, often of a peaceful nature. In redux, zelenin calls the world of law a new age.

**Ofuda**. In both shinto and japanese buddhism ofuda is a talisman made out of paper or wood seen as imbued with the power of deities. They are used for various purposes such as protection or exorcism. In megaten, they are strongly associated with Angels and the law alignment, being used for the hama exorcism skills.

**One mind** or **universal mind** is a concept in zen
buddhism. It is described as: “All the Buddhas and all the sentient
beings are nothing but the universal mind, besides which nothing
exists. This mind, which has always existed, is unborn
and indestructible. It is not green or yellow, and has neither form
nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things that
existor do not exist, nor can it be reckoned as being new or old.”and
it goes on “It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed
or measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is
no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things” They say:
“The real Buddha wasn’t necessarily the person who walked around
2500years ago teaching us the Dharma – that form was merely
a manifestation of the real Buddha.”

While the one mind does have aspects that resemble a world soul,
the focus of it is not merely on one-ness, but also on none-ness. It
gets equated to the void because it is related to the buddhist
absolute of sunyata. As something beyond being, it is an immanent
state that isn't merely a universal thing, but a kind of immanent
nature that all things partake in. The kyoto school of modern japanese
philosophy talked about how it was the things in reality giving nature
to the one mind. Using monotheistic language for it, nishida kitaro
says that the basis of what he calls God is pure nothingness. Not in
the sense of being literally emptiness, but in the sense of a
structural immanent power of being that isn't in any sense a “thing”
itself. God is seen by him as the ultimate of both being and non being,
being both the nothingness from which things arise, and the
unification of the things themselves. The things in their interaction
are what gives it essence and tangibility, rather than it being a
thing totally external to them.

People are seen both as individuals, but that their self is also
part of the great self which is god. And the religious experience is
born from our sensing this larger connection. He even uses the word
great will to describe this, calling the collective mind great thought
and great will. Individuality and universality are not considered
opposites, but mutually interdependent. Since distinct things can only
develop from a paradigm of one original whole. The myriad things are
considered one system, and morality is seen as being derived from your
actions shifting from selfish egoism to being one with the universal,
and so focusing on the good of the universal. Which sounds like a
lawful slant that ancient of days says in IV. The spiritual aspect of
god is the parallel to the big picture of the mental in a way that god
as the world is for the many physical things. And this relation is
that between whole and part.

While the great will in megaten has any number of influences it is
based on, the one mind is likely a big one, being what a japanese context would be familiar with. And his use of the term great
will strongly encompasses it. As well as the translation of it as
universal mind, since one of the earlier titles of the great will was
great will of the universe. The emphasis on it being “empty” or
“void” likewise calls to mind lucifer talking about law focusing
on the empty breath of god. And the way the kyoto school describes it
in terms of shifting your focus from the self to the big picture
closely resembles law's ethics. The visionary item in II where zayin is given a paradoxical statement about how god is both nonexistent and everything likewise calls it to mind.

**Ophite gnosticism**. In SMTII, satan helping give enlightenment in eden can tie to the beliefs of the ophites, which venerated the serpent in eden as a force of enlightenment, seemingly at times equating it to christ. While more associated with other alignments, even law has aspects of gnostic themes, especially in light of turning on yhvh. Satan is often depicted with a crucifixion motif, tying to the ophites as being associated with moses' symbol of the crucified serpent.

**Orders** refer to groups such as fraternal orders which have
secular goals (though often a religious undertone), religious orders,
which involve monks, which may not be priests themselves, and also
refers to the concept of holy orders which is conferring priesthood
onto people. The messian church's official name is the order of
messiah. And gabriel in IV refers to "our order"
referencing a group of angels. Which may be a play on words about the
fact that the side is the side of order.

**Panentheism** is the belief that the divine pervades and
interpenetrates every part of the universe and also extends beyond
time and space. The term was coined by the German philosopher Karl
Krause to distinguish the ideas of hegel and Schelling about the
relation of God and the universe from the supposed pantheism of
Spinoza. While the nature of the axiom obviously is something that
all the sides aknowledge in a panentheistic light to some degree, it
is mainly law that treats it more directly like panentheism in a
direct light. They even say in an interview that the existence of
yhvh was what allowed the great will to be worshiped more directly.
In contrast, note how while chaos reverse nature in a more direct
sense, they never expand this to a universal scale really.

**Paradise**. In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional
happiness and delight, often used as a word for a primal state or for
the world to come and the state of heaven on earth. Paradise is often
contrasted against the ills of civilization by highlighting it as a
world of peace. The word paradise is used by law a few times, such as
in Iv where the realm of heaven past purgatorium is known as
paradisio.

**Partzufim** or **Partsufim** are particular reconfigured
arrangements of the 10 sephirot (Divine attributes / emanations of
Kabbalah) into harmonized interactions in creation. Being
manifestations or faces of God within the world. The avatars of god
in the games are based on this, which is why they generally take the
form of spheres (which is a literal translation of sephirot).

**Pelagianism** is a belief in Christianity that original sin
did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of
choosing good or evil without special divine aid / assistance. This
is considered heretical to christians who think that only by god's
grace can people chose goodness. Nonetheless it is an obvious facet
of the law side, who don't see there as being any overt supernatural
element to choosing goodness.

**Piety** is a religious virtue that may include religious
devotion, spirituality, or a mixture of both. A common element in
most conceptions of piety is humility. In strange journey mastema
says that his light that can be used to turn someone into an angel
would burn up the impious. Showing piety as a concept they use for
context.

**Pluriform monotheism** is the idea in which various gods or
entities, without losing their independence,are at the same time
considered to be manifestations of one and the same divine substance.
This is very similar to soft polytheism, and is considered a link
between the two doctrines. The law side occasionally describes views
which border on this. Since it thinks of itself as monotheistic, but
god is not identical to yhvh, but different entities can represent
aspects of the abstract god.

**Positive peace**. Positive definitions of peace go beyond
merely dialectical definitionsof peace as the opposite of war and
instead focus on peace as a stateof rest, wholeness, or completion.
The peace of a just and tranquilorder points toward something like a
condition of wholeness in whichthere is solidarity, mutual respect,
and satisfaction of needs.  Inthis vision of peace there is
genuine community and humanflourishing. One central concern from the
standpoint of positive peaceis the work of peace education, as well
as work on nonviolent conflictresolution and mediation. Related
concernspoint toward the importance of justice, with a special focus
onrestorative justice and community building. This is ultimately the
goal of law, seeing its outcome of the new world as not just about
preventing suffering bot a positive spiritually uplifting situation
that enhances the flow of life.

This positive conception of peace is a large focus of
christianity, with the word peace being a common word it uses. This
likewise becomes a major aspect of messianism, with peace being used
as the main word to characterize law in iva, and it implicitly being
so in other games.

**Post-christianity** refers to beliefs heavily derived from
Christianity that are themselves no longer christian, but nonetheless
still involve a heavily christian tone. Such as Unitarian
universalism, or death of god theology. Messianism is a post
christian religion, existing in a world where christianity used to
exist, and still respecting jesus as the former messiah, while
expanding the role to a more archetypical one that various beings can
fulfill. There is a second element of this in the fact that in many games the messians develop past faith in yhvh. In smt nine doing so is called neo messianism.

**Pralaya** (literally non existence) is a hindu term for dissolution, which specifies a time when a world is dissolved and has no activity until the next creation. While in a more wide sense the lady in black points out that all worlds inevitably end and are reborn, a similar conception of pralaya and eschatology shows up in II for law when satan appears as a shiva-like figure, and in a form that resembles shiva (though note that shiva himself is often depicted chaos leaning). Ending what remains of the corrupted world so it can be restarted.

Notably however, law does not see this aspect of corruption as an inherent cycle, but as something that can be run into due to the destructive nature of humanity. With the fact that humanity, and human-like species who live on earth are commonly known to wipe themselves out eventually. This hindu conception of cyclical periods of destruction and rebirth is often mixed with the christian conceptions of apocalyptic events, and noah's ark if some people are saved to be transformed. But the presentation of them has more christian terminology.

Notably, in ths cyclical hindu conception of the world, the first period is known as **Satya Yuga.** In this time period, the world has more direct relations to the gods, and everyone lives in peace, with corruption and strife being essentially nonexistent. This is a close analogue to the world of law that law seeks to create. Notably though, law seeks for this world to last forever, rather than for it to devolve back to corrupt existence. And in law endings it is normally depicted as lasting indefinitely. But there is an aknowledgement that nothing necessarily lasts forever, especially in light of the fact that even if the world of law is preserved til the end of time, all worlds eventually end.

This potential limit of the eternal likely also being why law conflates the millenial reign with the world to come. In that its existence as an eternal kingdom means indefinitely long, but not necessarily literally eternal. Note also that the yugas in hinduism are specific amounts of time, whereas the cycles of the world in the games are not seen as something that happens at any specific time.

**Priesthood** refers to a specific ordination that confers
special authority to engage in sacramental rites. The messian church
in I and II does seem to have priests (though they do get conflated
with monks, which implies it is not seen as as unique a position as catholic priests. Although they do have the power to do blessings), and then in charge a figure called the center
bishop. Though higher than the bishop are a group called the church
elders. What the significance is of any of these groups is is
unknown, though the conflation with monasticism seems to imply them
as more of a formal than a properly sacramental role. Though notably,
priests can heal you at the churches, so it does seem like they have
some kind of abilities.

**Preservation**. In the context of the hindu ideas of
creation, preservation, and destruction, law is associated with
preservation, whereas chaos is associated with destruction. In
keeping with this pattern, krishna / vishnu is depicted as a
character on the law side, with shiva normally showing up chaos
aligned. Though these terms used as specific terms of major
significance has the most relevance in SMTIV. Note that these slants
do not mean each side does not have aspects of the opposite. Since
for law, satan is designed to look somewhat like shiva, and takes a
role similar to him in terms of destruction.

**Purgatory** is an idea somedenominations have of a purifying
place one goes to before heaven toslowly refine one into a heavenly
state, by burning out their sins.Note that in views in which hell is
not eternal, hell and purgatoryare the same thing. In SJ's law end,
zelenin refers to earth ashaving been in a time of purgatory that is
now coming to an end.Implying an intermediary stage which is now
leading into a heavenlyone. For the world as a whole, rather than
individuals. So the use of purgatory here refers more to a time of
tribulation in general. Purgatorium is also a literal place in IV
that was summoned to guard mikado, though it was left ambiguous what
overall use it has besides that, and whether it has a use like a
literal purgatory.

**Purity** is a term commonly use in religion that means free
from defilements. This can mean different things in different
contexts however. The world of law gets referred to as a pure world
in overclocked. And so it is being used as a general term for lack of
corruption.

**Quietism** is a heretical doctrine of Christian
spirituality that, in general, holds that perfection consists in
passivity (quiet) of the soul, in the suppression of human effort so
that divine action may have full play. This is a union with the
divine that happens not in the afterlife, but can even apply in this
life, lasting for periods or even a full lifetime. One's own will is
left quiet so that god can act within you, similar to the taoist
concept of action without action. God, the sole reality, lives and
reigns in the souls of those who have undergone this mystic death,
with their wills brought into full unison with the divine will. Ones
in this state are also seen as not needing to perform external acts
of piety, having god manifested from within. Less extreme versions of
the idea are known as **semiquietism**.

Elements of this show up in the approach law has to the ideal
transcendental goal of practice. In SMTII zayin has a realization
that yhvh is not god, but merely a face of god. And that one can
become a face of god themselves, acting in unison with the divine
will. In SMTIV lilith talks about the lawful mentality as giving your
mind and body completely over to god, being passive and merely acting
in god's name. While this is a more semiquietist approach, not being
meant to blot out one's own identity, it has a large element of
becoming an extension of the divine will. Jonathan in Iv likewise
said that god sought for man to become an extension of his order. And
this shift is away from your personal will towards the will of the
collective. The great will. Notably however, the great will is a kind
of extrapolation of the needs of the many rather than a specific
will, or a summary of individual wills. Shijima being literally
translated as "silence" may also be related to this.

**Rabbi**. A rabbi is a Jewish scholar or teacher, especially
one who studies or teaches Jewish law. Since the fall of the temple,
rabbis have been considered of special significance, being the ones
who take a role equivalent to priests, though are not considered
priests due to priests requiring the existence of the temple. While
the law side does not seem to use the term rabbi for humans, in SMTII
there is a walking droid called a rabbi that is projecting an image
of a bishop above it. Which implies that it may be used as a mobile
teaching tool.

**Redemption** in christian theology is the deliverance of humanity from sin. In christian theology it has an important part in the sense of which humanity is seen as helpless to redeem themselves, and so are in inherent need of a redeemer to pay the price for sin. Contrary to that christian doctrine, in the games, in overclocked remiel highlights the need for man to redeem itself multiple times. And so there is no metaphysical connotations given to the messiah in terms of sin redemption. It is just seen as a state of improving your moral condition.

**Right hand path**. In Western esotericism the Left-Hand Path
and Right-Hand Path are the dichotomy between two opposing approaches
to magic. Right hand path is seen as a definition for those magical
groups that follow specific ethical codes and adopt social
convention, while the Left-Hand Path adopts the opposite attitude,
espousing the breaking of taboo and the abandoning of set morality.
In strange journey zelenin has an attack called right hand, making it
a more explicit association.

**Ritual purification** is the purification ritual prescribed
by a religion by which a person about to perform some ritual is
considered to be free of *uncleanliness*, especially prior to
the worship of a deity, and **ritual purity** is a state of ritual
cleanliness. It is a strong facet of early judaism, with this
becoming a basis of the concepts of unclean and cleansing in iv.
Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual
uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such
as dirt stains. Gabriel in Iv talks about purification in terms of
the purification of the new world from anything which can cause it to
deviate from its orderly goals. Which ties to the association with
ritual uncleanliness that is used to describe being tainted with
demonic knowledge. ivs concepts may also be inspired by shinto misogi
concepts of ritual purification.

The language used, being japanese in the original game relates to the idea of **Harae** or **harai**, which is the general term for rituals of purification in Shinto. Harae is one of four essential elements involved in a Shinto ceremony. It often involves offerings or ritual washing. this is seen as purifying both sins (**tsumi**) and ritual uncleanliness (**kegare**). The state of ritual purity is known as **kiyomi**. The language of harae is used by the angels in iv to talk about purifying tokyo, giving a tone of shinto language to the concepts. Though notably this is merged with the jewish concepts of ritual purity. The jewish terms are **Tumah** and **taharah**, referring to being impure and pure respectively.

**Rosary** refers to either a string of beads used for reciting
prayers during their recitation, or to the series of prayers itself
associated with it. Most specifically that of catholicism. In I and II you can obtain rosaries from the messiah churches. Notably the strings of beads messian units
are shown with tend to look more eastern rather than like western
rosaries.

**Sainthood**. A **saint** is a person who is recognized as
having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness or closeness to
God. In strange journey on the law side you are referred to as a
saint. From a megaten angle, the focus of who is qualified as a saint
is shifted slightly, relating to the ethical concept of a moral
saint, someone who nearly always acts in a morally ideal way. With
the angels seemingly using the term to qualify such humans. Amane's
path in devil survivor is also called kingdom of saints, implying a
more lenient use of the word also.

**Salvation** is an important issue inChristianity, and is
divided in multiple ways. In christianity, salvation is stated as the
saving of the soul from sin and its consequence. Judaism has no
equivalent of salvation, saying that sin is not inherently
irrevocably corruptible in this way. The law side uses salvation as a
term however not merely to refer to a good afterlife, but to having a
good outcome in general, being given a life free from harm in this
world. The word salvation is not however exclusive to the law side,
also being used by the divine powers.

**Satans**. While the term satan is most often known as the
term for the christian devil, in many forms of judaism it refers not
to a specific being, but as a type of being. The head of whom is
called ha-satan. In many forms of judaism, demons are not necessarily
enemies of god, but refer to any spiritual being doing something seen
as harmful to mankind in the immediate sense, even if necessary in
the big picture. With there being many dark or wrathful angels such as the angel of death functioning as such. In kabbalah some even hold that the angels
moderating the tree of death are dark angels working deliberately for
god, rather than fallen angels. Here, dark angels are associated with gevurah and the tree of death, and light angels with chesed and the tree of life.

In megaten satan is a name for one of
the highest angels in reference to this. But some other references to
the kabbalic polarity shows up too. Merkabah is half light and half
dark, showing that some angels function in this dark capacity. In
fact, many of the main angels in the games are depicted with an
element of darkness about them. With mastema also looking dark, and
being derived from another interpretation of the jewish satan. In side material, atlus equates this idea of dark angels to the idea of god's left hand, delineated from the more benign right hand. Atlus points out that these wrathful or cruel angels are often seen as demons, despite coming from god.

**Scapular**. The scapular is a Roman Catholic garment
suspended from the shoulders. There are two types of scapular, the
monastic and devotional scapular, although both forms may simply be
referred to as "scapular". As an object of popular piety,
it serves to remind the wearers of their commitment to live a
Christian life. The messians have a blue full size monastic scapular
as part of their standard uniform in SMTI and II. In IV it is only
worn by monks however.

**Sekagi** is a ritual in japan known as the feeding of the hungry ghosts. It is done to remember the dead, but is also a time of reflection on one's own karmic state. This ritual is usually done by making an offering to them of blessed rice, which is seen as alleviating their suffering. It may also be used to send them away from te world of the living if they are seen as making problems for them. In smti the law side offers sekagi rice as one of its blessed items. Likely in keeping with its goal of reducing suffering. As an item it also functions as an exorcism skill, highlighting the pacifying of spirits and keeping them from harming the living.

**Sin**. In a religious context, sin is an act of transgression
against divine law. Sin can also be viewed as any thought or action
that endangers the ideal relationship between an individual and God;
or as any diversion from the perceived ideal order for human living.
megaten, the word sin is used for immoral actions by the law side,
but specific connotations are not given to what the more in depth
meaning is. Its understanding of sin more resembles the jewish
understanding in which there is no explicit concept of a sin nature
that inherently orients humanity to sin, thus needing a redeemer.

**Solar deity**. While gods associated with the sun exist on every side, more emphasis is placed on it for law.

**Solar Logoi** or solar lords is a term in theosophy for the beings who are the highest manifestations of divinity after the dual manifestations of the alpha and the omega. They channel the divine light that emanates from the godhead and through this underlie all creation. They reside in the great central sun, which is an invisible sun from which the divine light emanates into reality. They are ultimately the ones who are the cosmic teachers who grant the dispensations (light energy) that are used to help those in reality.

In IV, for law, the ancient of days is likely meant to call this to mind in keeping with the emphasis that the missions tied to the white have to do with theosophy. The mission is called ancient one of the sun, and ancient of days is another term for sanat kumara, showing a polar interpretation of a figure. Ancient of days also routinely uses the word dispensation in keeping with the role of the solar lords.

One story in theosophy is how the alpha and the omega and the solar logoi and the further ranks beneath them saw how in the ancient past humanity had lost entirely its connection to the divine and instead turned to corruption and sought to dissolve earth back into primal energy to cycle back through the great central sun for repolarization and recreation. But sanat kumara offered to go to earth to foster it until humanity could be restored. Here this story is depicted through the ancient of days coming to earth to wipe out what is left of the corrupt humanity to give rise to a new one free from corruption.

**Soteriology** is the study of
religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place
of special significance in many religions. Salvation referring to a
concept of specifically being saved from a harmful situation. For
law this concept is a little different, since it is less about the
afterlife, and more about the system saving you in this world. Though
krishna seemed to be using the concept closer to the normal religious
concept, due to wanting to lead people's souls to unity and moksha.

**Spiritual gifts** collectively refers to various spiritual attributes that one is said to be able to gain from the holy spirit. the gifts of the holy spirit are holy dispositios for your personal growth, such as wisdom, might, and understanding. The fruits of the holy spirit are effects that stem from livig in tune with the spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Charisms refer to gifts given for the sake of others directly, such as leadership, mercy, or prophecy. IV highlights how you are filled with the holy spirit on law, showing being bestowed with these types of gifts.

**Stigmata**. Although it is rare to see a visual stigmata in the games, with iva satan being one exception, certain law units have the word stigmata in their attacks such as raphael's stigmata strike.

**Stoicism** is an ancient Greek philosophy which teaches the
development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming
destructive emotions. This being a large facet of the basis of law.
When stoic ideals are explicitly merged into a christian paradigm it
is called **neostoicism**.

**Struggle with god** is a jewish concept that refers to the idea of not simply accepting the religion as-is, but accepting critique and coming on your own terms, even in terms of bringing challenges to god. The series' openness to literally fighting against god has a loose element of this in it. The concept is also referenced by mastema in iv when he says going against god is one way to learn of him.

**Sunyata,** translated into English as *emptiness* and
*voidness*, is a Buddhist concept which has multiple meanings
depending on its doctrinal context. In Theravada Buddhism, Sunyata
often refers to the not-self nature of the five aggregates of
experience and the six sense spheres. Sunyata is also often used to
refer to a meditative state or experience. In Mahayana, *Sunyata*
refers to the precept that "all things are empty of intrinsic
existence and nature". In Tibetan Buddhism, *Sunyata*
refers to "openness and understanding nonexistence".
Nirvana in buddhism is presented as a realization of the ultimate
reality of emptiness.

The importance of sunyata to buddhism is heavy. Sometimes even
being treated like its ultimate, in place of a monotheistic god.
Empty is an insult in IV used by both lucifer and lilith to describe the nature of
those who rely on god rather than their own identity And in japan the same word was used for it that is used for sunyata. Relating aw to that aspect of buddhism. That could have an
almost nietzschean interpretation too, since nietzsche said that
monotheism in a sense represents man's desire for nothingness. Since
the messian religion has a buddhist monk robe in it in Iv, that
inspiration may be likely to be intentional. Doubly so since in
nocturne, the assembly of nihilo has nihilo in its actual name and
was that game's law equivalent. Setting some of the tone for future
law figures, and referencing this buddhist aspect. Doubly so since in
buddhism it is also sometimes used as a metaphor for a mind empty of
impurities.

In strange journey, law figures also often emphasize the phrase
"this body" to refer to individuals. This ties to the idea
of individuals not being truly discrete, but rather separate
collections of properties. And sounds buddhist in tone.

**Surrender** in religion is a term for giving up your will to that of a higher power. Often an analogous concept to submission. Surrender is willful acceptance and yielding to a dominating force and their will. It is a large facet of christianity in its empasis on dying to the self to allow christ to live through the believer. In game this is expressed as a large facet of law, with this even being reflected in that the standard angel appears in the guise of submissive bondage.

**Tantra** are the mystical feeling affirming practices of vajrayana buddhism. While tantra is most overtly associated with chaos, satan has the appearance of tantric deity, and undergoes a path similar to that of tantric accomplishment.

**Techno-animism** refers to the blending of the spiritual with the technological. While all the games have aspects of this, due to the use of computers to summon, and conflation of the spiritual with the informational, law does in a slightly more explicit way, due to its associations with the anthrosophical satan, who is associated with technology. Hence, certain angels will be cyborgs or robotic, with satan having additional robotic tails.

**Tengu** are japanese spirits who take bird like forms, and are associated with shugendo practices. Originally seen as evil, they later became seen as protector spirits. In later megaten they have a judaism influenced appearance and are on the law side, in reference to jewish japanese ancestor theory.

**Tariki** or "**other power**" is a buddhist concept of  spiritually benefitting from an outside power rather than purely one's own efforts. In pure land it refers to the salvific powers of amitabha. Law here represents this idea of being helped from outside. Contrasted against jiriki, or self-power, which corresponds to chaos saying you are on your own.

**The great central sun** is a term in theosophy that refers to a spiritual sun on another plane from which all the divine light is filtered to the universe. It is populated by the solar logoi, who channel the divine light. The great central sun is referenced in the name of ancient of days who is depicted in a theosophical light being called ancient one of the sun. Although this is not highlighted and no mention is made of ths being a distinct existing spiritual realm, leaving it ambiguous to what it refers.

**The Holy Spirit** in Judaism, also termed Divine Inspiration, generally refers to the inspiration through which
attuned individuals perceive and channel the Divine through action,
writing, or speech. Through this they attain some degree of prophetic
knowledge, and possibly convey it to others. The phrase ruach
hakodesh (also transliterated ruaḥ ha-qodesh) is used in
the Tanakh and other writings to refer either to the spirit of
inspiration as above, or to the general, indwelling revelation of the
Divine Presence among the Jews, also known as the Shekhinah. Although
the term appears frequently in post-biblical writings, in Scripture
itself, the term appears only in possessive form as *ruach*
kodshakha *"Thy holy spirit." While the holy spirit also*
exists in christianity, the megaten version is more based on the
jewish concept.

The term shows up in two games in megaten. In IV, in the final
battle of the law ending, if you do everything right it says you are
filled with the holy spirit, conveying an idea of being filled with
divine essence. And in strange journey it likewise refers to it as a
source of guidance. Strange journey also uses the wrod holy spirit to
refer to the unified collective nature of humanity if it were to
unite its minds. While shekinah exists as a specific entity, they are
not seen using the term as a more generic term for an abstract
spiritual concept.

**The law**. Judaism framed its morality using the language of
laws. **The torah** is a term for the jewish law (translated
literally as law) given to moses on mount sinai. However, the torah
as given was not merely a set of rules, but also accompanying
religious information in general. Different jews disagree on what all
encompasses the torah, with the most restricted definition being the
first five bible books, and the most expansive encompassing the
entirety of jewish teaching, including later additions. Judaism
considers there to be 613 commandments derived from the torah,
collectively referred to as the halakha. In the bible paul wrote
about how christians were not bound by the jewish law, only by
faithfulness to christ. He refers to this later system as the **law of christ,** though that term is not commonly used**.**

In megaten the law side of course has the word law literally
worked into its description. And uses language that emphasizes the
concept of law to describe its ethics at times. Like in II when zayin
talked about contingent laws and their contrast against ideal ones.
And in Iv where ancient of days talks about the dispensation of the
universe. And so the concept of law and laws has religious
significance for the side, referring to a kind of cosmic divine law
as derived from the great will. However, despite this, the term law
is not actually emphasized by them that often, and this is not seen
as having any particular significance of implying that morality has
to be understood in terms of tangible laws. So it is taking
inspiration from the christian side as well. In addition, shekinah
has an attack with the word torah in it. Notably, corrupt versions of
yhvh also consider their whims to be aspects of the law.

A related concept to law is the fact that in IV, ancient of days uses the word **dispensation** to mean law. While its use of the word dispensation seems to be a reference to ascended master teachings, dispensation can either mean law, or the act of distributing. And the theosophical use generally means the latter.

**The** **laying on of hands** is a religious practice. In
Christian churches, this practice is used as both a symbolic and
formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit during a variety of
sacraments and other ceremonies. Mastema lays his hands on zelenin to
turn her into an angel. Though in-game its not clear whether this was
a direct invoking of this idea.

**Theoria** or **christian contemplation** is a term for a
christian conception of meditation. It refers to several Christian
practices which aim at "looking at", "gazing at",
or "being aware of" God or the Divine. Many of the aspects
of theoria later became what would be seen as mysticism. Especially
in light of the law side absorbing some meditative tones from the
other religions and its mystical aspect, this would be a large facet
of it.

**Theosis** or divinization is the eastern orthodox concept of mystical union, which when completed in heaven makes you share in the divinity of god. This is seen not as you becoming independently divine, but unified to god's divinity. This sense of collective divinity is seen at times in the games, especially strange journey.

**The seven heavens**. Heaven is of course a general area or group of areas that the angels live in, and which people go to after death. The words empyrean and tian are also used for aspects of it. and in some games it is named after kabbalic terms for heaven. In kabbalah the higher heaven is called **beriah**, and the lower is called **yetzirah**. The seven heavens of yetzirah are referred to as Araboth, Makon, Ma'on, Zebul, Shechaqim, Reqia, and Vilon. In Majin tensei II the different areas of amnesia (heaven) were named after these seven areas, with the central one being named eden. In contrast, the areas in paranoia (hell) were named after the seven earths / underworlds of kabbalah. Note that in apocalypse there is a second higher heaven where yhvh lives, which may be a reference to this distinction between the higher beriah and yetzirah.

Notably, due to the contingent nature of the structure of the worlds, heaven here is not an absolute destination. Beings can be born in heaven after death at any time, and beings in heaven can die and reenter the cycle of transmigration. The time thought of as the end times is not a permanent afterlife, but the transformation of the world to resemble a heavenly state moreso. These transformations are designed to last hopefully indefinitely, but are of course still contingent. And even post the transformation there is often still a distinction between heaven and earth, though in many games it highlights that travel between them would be more common.

The heavenly realms in the games are not merely based on or referred to with abrahamic conceptions of heaven however. Although primarily abrahamic, they are meant to some degree to be a type of composite location. In the japanese version of redux the empyrean ascent is referred to with the name **tian**, calling to mind chinese conceptions of heaven. and in IV, ancient of days is called the ancient one of the sun. This refers to the theosophical concept of the **great central sun**, which is the hidden spiritual sun from which the divine light flows into reality.

In buddhism, while being born in a heaven is a reasonable outcome, your ultimate goal is the goal of liberation. And those born into heavens tend not to become liberated due to living in too much peace. So chaos' view of being born into the heavenly realms, due to their buddhist influence, likely ties to this somewhat. While chaotic figures do not generally seek paranirvana, they see living in the peaceful world to be restricting and against the liberation that they seek.

**The Social Gospel** was a movement that applied Christian
ethics to systemic social problems rather than merely individual
ethical concerns. These being issues such as economic inequality,
poverty, and racial tensions. It was seen as a uniting of certain
egalitarian ideas with a christian paradigm. A later more developed
version of this idea is **Liberation theology**, which is a form
of christian theology that emphasizes social concern for the poor and
solving various structural issues in society.  It is based on
the concept of "Preferential option for the poor," which
refers to the emphasis in the new testament of focusing on the
treatment of the poor as perhaps its central moral drive, and was
inspired by aspects of marxist analysis though is not inherently tied
to marxism. It was a heavily central theology to many latin american
theologians starting in the mid fifties.

**Theurgy** is a rennisance esoteric term either for calling forth angels, or the divine presence. Its demonic counterpart was called goetia. Note that law embraces the more esoteric variants of abrahamic religion, though it warns that not just anyone should have the power to summon.

**The world to come**, age to come, and **heaven on Earth**
are eschatological phrases reflecting the belief that the current
world or current age is flawed or cursed and will be replaced in the
future by a better world, age, or paradise. The concept is related to
but differs from the concepts of heaven, or the afterlife, in that
heaven is another place or state generally seen as above the world,
the afterlife is generally an individual's life after death. Heaven
can delineate a disembodied afterlife, but the world to come implies
a tangible future world at the end of time. In megaten for the law
side, this concept is lumped together with the thousand year reign to
delineate the peaceful world created in the law ending. Distinct from
heaven in that heaven is a place people can be born into at any time,
heaven on earth turns the world itself more orderly.

**Thousand year reign** refers to aperiod in revelation
specified as a time near the end of the worldthat leads into the
eternal kingdom. Thousand year kingdom or millennial kingdom is
obviously used in megaten as a term to directly specify an
indefinitely long peaceful period on earth. Though in megaten this
term is used to specify an indefinite period, and is treated at least
in the immediate sense as the final goal in and of itself.

**Tian**, commonly translated as "Heaven" or "Sky",
but philologically meaning the "Great One", "Great
Whole", is a key concept in Confucianism. It denotes the source
of reality, the cosmos, and nature in Chinese religions and
philosophies. The Confucians mean by Tian and li (order) something
similar to what the Taoists mean by Tao to some extent.
However, heaven was seen as a world spirit directly, unlike tao. This
idea is not unique to confucianism and existed in some other
chinese philosophy, but for confucianism it was a big part. In redux
the term shows up as a term for part of the heavenly area you visit
in general. In addition, in devil children, heaven is called tenkai, which has tian as a root and means heavenly sea.

**Tranquility of order** is a term used by many christian
writers to refer to the peace that stems from a properly ordered
society. Augustine links peace with his meaning of order, in which
all things in the universe have their proper place established by
God, their creator. The term can also include the divine order
imposed on the universe and a theoretical framework for peace. Peace
is therefore the state a person or thing achieves when it is in
accordance with the larger created order. This is tied to the concept
of a "just war" as a war only undertaken when necessary to
restore and establish this peace.

Although megaten doesn't have this concept of implied teleology,
the language here used does imply a proper orderly structure
underlying peace, which is heavily the depiction it is approached by
from the law side. This association of order and peace that law has
obviously tying to christian concepts of such in general. In Iv
merkabah outright uses the phrase "the holiness of order"
which is likely derived from this phrase. And in imagine, you are
told that absolute peace requires absolute order, and this is the
nature of god. Giving context to the basis of seeing order as holy.
Note that although the zoroastrian word asha never shows up, the
presence of zoroastrian angels and anahita with the law side implies
that it is loosely lumped in too.

**Transcendence** refers to things that exist beyond you. Law
focuses on the nature of the transcendent divine order in contrast to
chaos focusing on the nature of the immanent divinity of the self.

**Tree of life** is a concept in kabbalah refering to the unity
of the ten manifestations of god in the world as a kind of
panentheistic structure of creation. The sephirot that compose it are
associated with spiritual powers in general that are seen as both
manifestations of aspects of god as well as virtues one can manifest.
A large facet of the kabbalah is to restore a kind of divine order to
the manifested world that began in chaos. Both law and chaos have
many overt kabbalic tones, with law showing the sephirot as the
avatars of god.

**Trinity** is a term for any god or thing in general that is
expressed in some form of triadic nature. In later christianity, the
trinity is the christian belief that the father, son, and holy spirit
are each a person who is wholly god, with there only being one god.
While the order of messiah does not believe this, not ascribing any
unique position to jesus over other messiahs, they do still often use
symbols that emphasize triangles, in keeping with the christian
tendency to do so to represent the trinity. While it is not clear
what belief it might be, due to no overt references to their beliefs
focusing on the number three, it seems they have some type of trinity
type view about some spiritual thing or other. the word trinity is
however used in majin tensei where it is used to refer to the heaven,
hell, and earthly realms as a trinity of worlds.

**UFO religion** is a term for any religion in which the
existence of extraterrestrial (ET) entities operating unidentified
flying objects (UFOs) is an element of belief. Typically, adherents
of such religions believe the ETs to be interested in the welfare of
humanity which either already is, or eventually will become, part of
a pre-existing ET civilization. Others may incorporate ETs into a
more supernatural worldview in which the UFO occupants are more akin
to angels than physical aliens; this distinction may be blurred
within the overall subculture.

Although subtle, law has aspects of ufo religion mixed in with it.
Various of its figures, like throne, ancient of days, and some forms of cherub are
designed to look like aliens or ufos in keeping with the idea of the
association of angels with aliens, especially in the book of ezekiel.
This also has to do with the idea that angels come from the sky, and
of law's association with an unnatural transformation of humanity and
otherworldly technology. It also encompasses the idea of demons as
"others" who are not necessarily inherently perfect beings.

**Unclean** In the old testament the ordinary state of most
things was "cleanness, " but a person or thing could
contract ritual "uncleanness" (or "impurity") in
a variety of ways such as actions or coming into contact with
something. In Jewish law, **tumah** and **taharah** are the
state of being ritually "impure" and "pure",
respectively. A person or object which contracts tumah is said to be
tamei ("ritually impure"), and thereby unsuited for certain
holy activities and utilisations (kedusha in Hebrew) until undergoing
predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a
specified time-period.

In IV these concepts are used to refer to the distinction between
those purified of demonic gnosis versus those who are not. In Iv this
corruption via gnosis being seen as so damaging that it has to be
gotten rid of, even if contracted indirectly. But this is a distinct
concept from evil. It is possible, though uncertain that this may
also be influenced by other religions' focuses on cleanliness /
purity, as it is a big aspect of shinto.

**Universal** and **individualized presence**. In the ascended master teachings there is one god who is the souce of all creation, called the "Universal All-Pervading Presence of Life", or "The One" This Divine Being and Mind is considered to be above and distinct from all creation (in the sense of classical theism), transcending all creation yet interpenetrating all existence. Belief in this one God stresses the essential unity of the spiritual and material components of the universe. This god is stressed to not be a personal entity, but rather an immutable principle, occasionally referred to as brahman, which is given personhood only in its avatars.

God creates through Individualized Identities that have distinct
Self-Consciousness and that make up the Spiritual Hierarchy of Creation. All beings in creation have what is called The Individualized "I AM" Presence. With those with the highest levels of spiritual enlightenment acting as the faces of god in reality, embodying different aspects of god's consciousness across the cosmos. And where beings in reality who undergo spiritual enlightenment can raise to a higher place in the hierarchy. This unity is often compared to the hindu ideas of atman and brahman.

In IV, along with the other alignments, law is given an explicit theosophical slant, with ancient of days talking about how it is a part of the lord, and the lord being depicted as a composite being with different beings manifested as its faces. Ancient of days in IV is depicted as based on the solar logoi of theosophy, who are the highest manifestations of god in reality after the alpha and omega, in keeping with how the avatars of god are depicted as the highest manifestations of divinity after yhvh.

This is consistent with earlier games, such as where zayin talks about becoming a face of god, and how god does not only have one face, being himself everything. And in strange journey where mastema talks about transcending his angel form and ascending to a higher form. This depiction of beings acting as faces of god also shows up in apocalypse where when in front of the crowd merkabah is referred to as god, and they say god has descended.

**Upekkha** is the Buddhist concept of equanimity. It is a pure
mental state cultivated on the Buddhist path to nirvana. Since
shijima in nocturne is the law equivalent for that game, the buddhist
concept of dispassion has been related to law slanted ethics
directly. Interestingly, this focus on dispassion is absent from the
chaos side despite chaos having the biggest aesthetic Buddhist
inspiration. In IV law also has buddhist monk robes, which may imply
a more direct basis, since it upholds this tone of dispassion.

**Works of mercy** is a catholic term for the moral acts christians are called to perform for the sake of others. This term is meant to signify that morality is not merely the absence of doing bad things, such as avoiding murder, but requires a proactive aspect of going out and taking care of the needs of others. It is divided into corporal works which is taking care of their material needs, and spiritual works which is taking care of their spiritual needs.

**Works righteousness** refers to the idea that how righteous
one is is denoted by how moral their actions are. While a
straightforward understanding of ethics today, this term was coined
by luther, who believed righteousness was obtained by worship. The
law side obviously believes in works righteousness.

**Wrathful deity** refers to figures in buddhism that are good figures, but specifically appear in frightening or violent forms to show their willingness to fight evil. They are also a large facet of tantric practices and deity yoga. While wrathful deities are a large facet of the chaos side, being one of their main associations, satan on law also has a design that is inspired by them, looking very close to the buddhist mahakala.

**Yazata** is a zoroastrian term that means worthy of veneration. It can refer to the spirits that are seen as gods or angels, or even to certain prayers that are seen as holy. Alongside the angels, zoroastrian yazatas are also a recurring facet of the law side, such as sraosha armati, and anahita, with one of those being a specific character, and another being a major npc. Zoroastian yazatas appear alongside the angels, but are generally just referred to as angels. Notably however, ahura mazda is depicted as chaos leaning due to being seen as the god form of asuras.

**Yonaoshi** or "world renewal" is a term associated with a trend common in many new japanese religions to shift away from the idea of otherworldly goals, and towards a kind of millenarian world transformation that would rectify social inequalities. Yonaoshi gods were originally more local deities who fixed social ills, but the beliefs evolved to messianic and often monotheistic teachings of world transformation. While the origins were tied to japanese peasant movements, some of them also took inspiration from western egalitarian or christian teachings, sometimes even conflating their gods with yahweh. Many of the initial yonaoshi gods were deified humans (though one was the catfish namazu), though over time as its scope expanded to a more universal eschatology, they tended to be more absolute gods.

The concept of yonaoshi gods marked an important deviation from historical japanese religion in many ways. Neither shinto nor buddhism bore a specific eschatology of world improvement, or particular hope for the improvement of material conditions in the future of this life. And teachings on karma, or confucian family roles tended to focus on the idea of your place in the world being fairly static, and so difficult to question. Yonaoshi gods were a radical deviation, calling into question the social structure in an overt and more radical way, As well as emphasizing the possibility of improvement in this world, via spiritual power, rather than merely hoping for justice in a future world.

Yonaoshi is a central japanese historical context for understanding the law side. Its in-game focus notably revolves around a messianism and millenarianism that is this-worldly focused, revolving around the creation of an equal world rather than any otherworldly goals. And both law and chaos are heavily inspired by japanese new religion, and its often cult-like associations. In keeping with the view of yonaoshi as often drawing on western ideas, law is also mainly western coded, with yahweh as its initial head. Though of course these actual new japanese religions tended to be mostly entirely eastern in character, with only minor inspirations from the west.

## Neutral

An important note for neutral is that while law and chaos in this context refers to the same groups even if they are appearing in a parralel universe, the spiritual dynamic of neutral does not necessarily center around a single group, and so it comes off very different in different games. Even sometimes in the same game neutral will have distinct spiritual dynamics that are not depicted as overly affiliated with eachother, such as in IV where mastema's abrahamic neutral dynamic is not presented as strongly affiliated with the dynamic of the actual ending. So contrary to the messians and gaians, many of these neutral concepts have to be understood as not necessarily all held by the same group even if they are all part of the larger neutral spiritual paradigm.

**Adam ha-rishon** in kabbalah refers to the earthly human adam
that contrasts the divine adam of adam kadmon. Adam ha-rishon
sometimes merely refers to adam in the context of the book of
genesis, but sometimes kabbalah depicts this as if the earthly adam
contained the souls of all humanity within it, and that the primal
sin of him led to the world as it exists now, and that we are each a
part of the soul of this larger humanity. And that by proper practice
we can reunite and relate to the other parts. This is not always
thought of as a literal story, but sometimes as a metaphor for how
humanity was meant to work in unison, yet in actuality exists more in
chaos. While megaten doesn't consider that humanity was ever one
being, in strange journey they do say adam's spirit - the spirit of
humanity, talking about a collective human spirit. And the main
character of smti is depicted as the reincarnation of adam, as a lead
in to a new creation. Implying adam being a kind of symbol of
humanity. This is not a major focus of neutral, but does have subtle
ties to its spiritual humanist elements.

**Aeon** is a term for the true divine beings of gnosticism who exist in the hidden pleroma above the world fo the archons. They emanate from within "the son" who embodies the fullness of the pleroma, being both connected to him, but also distinct beings. They represent qualities of spirituality, but function in a large way like polytheistic gods.

Although this only shows up in smt nine, aeons come up as a theme for neutral, since sophia helps you defeat the demiurge. This matches with the fact that law is associated with archons, and one aspect of neutral spirituality is seeking to break free from a spiritual dynamic of control. Notably however, in iv you get a weapon called the sword of sophia on chaos for defeating the demiurge, so the gnostic aspects are split. Notably also, neutral's goal is not to reject the physical world, seeing this liberation in a more ideological sense. One reason for this association between neutral and aeons is the fact that unlike gods in some religions, aeons do not judge or force ideology on humanity, with humanity reaching them or not being something they can do by their own choice and power.

**Anthrosophy** is a spiritual tradition founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner. One of its core perspectives is the idea of spiritual growth being a balance between two influences. Lucifer motivates creativity and spirituality, but can also cause pride. Ahriman, also called satan pulls people to materialism, and can help develop technology and intellectualism, but risks a lack of understanding of the human spirit. The correct path is seen as the balance between them, and is associated with christ, and personal freedom and development. These spirits are seen as appearing in different forms in different religions across the world. In interviews, atlus explicitly compared the alignments to anthrosophic teachings.

**Ascended master teachings**. in new age or theosophical
beliefs, ascended masters are individuals believed to have lived in
physical bodies, acquired the wisdom and mastery needed to become
immortal and free of the cycles of "re-embodiment" and
karma, and have attained their "ascension", a state of
"one-ness" with God. SMTIV adds a theosophical tone to the
game which highlights that neutral may see the type of post-humans
who have divine bodies as kind of like this. Doubly because ascended
masters in new age teachings are not treated as gods per say, merely
enlightened beings who can help you. Note that the white in iv are
based on the **great white brotherhood** of theosophy, though a
darker take on it as having become corrupt. and are a neutrally
aligned group. Note that the idea of the great white brotherhood also
applies to chaos somewhat, in the presence of sanat kumara.

**Asceticism** is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from
sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual or
other types of goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their
practices or continue to be part of their society, but typically
adopt a frugal lifestyle, characterized by the renunciation of
material possessions and physical pleasures, and time spent fasting
while concentrating on the practice of religion or reflection upon
spiritual matters.

While asceticism is not a goal practiced by most neutral figures,
the idea of dedicating one's self to a practice in this way is
referred to explicitly as asceticism by en no ozuno in the visionary
items. In context though, the emphasis here is less on total
renunciation of worldly things, and more on a focus of practice and
some moderation for the sake of self improvement. The word asceticism
is used mainly due to the religious veneer the ideals of the sides
are generally shown with as a whole.

**Axis mundi** refers to any mythological concept representing "the connection between Heaven and Earth" or the "higher and lower realms." It will often be something like a tree, mountain, or pillar. In majin tensei ii, they refer to the human world as the axis, highlighting it as between, and connecting the higher and lower realms. In much of mainline it is treated in this way, with many neutral gods being worldly gods of the axis who are closer to human existence, residing in spiritual realms close to earth. One major examples in the games is the four devas who often work for neutral protecting the world, and which in buddhism live on the axis of mount meru. Although in-game, mount meru is not adressed.

**Banshin** or **marodokami** is a shinto term for foreign gods. It generally has a tone implying their lack of association of the people of japan. It was originally seen written on something saying "if the banshin is worshiped just now, the deities of [our] land will surely be enraged." In this passage, the banshin referred to is an image of Shakyamuni Buddha. One of the focuses that neutral has is that foreign or outside gods are more suspicious than those associated with your own culture. Though the term banshin does not inherently imply them as enemies, and often syncretism was practiced in historical japan. Likewise, neutral does not have a problem with outside gods inheretly per say, but views with suspicion large paradigms that are seen as associated with disrupting or diminishing one's own paradigm.

**Benevolent silence** is a term used to describe the fact that shinto, due to its format as a group of collective japanese practices and traditions is not seen as having a collected group of moral doctrines that is all-encompassing. While it does have a few moral precepts, for the most part it is not seen as providing specific moral guidance, and so moral understanding is seen as fairly distinct from its practices. This s of course a large basis for neutral's affiliation with it, since while neutral's spiritual paradigms do provide some context for action, its ethics is treated as for the most part external to its spirituality. This being not secular ethics in the sense of being totally distinct from religion, but rather that the limit of the religion's scope makes the morality outside of it.

**Bodhisattva** is a term in mahayana buddhism for anyone who either as a buddha, or very close to one foregoes ending their rebirths and chooses to continue incarnating so as to help other people achieve enlightenement. In the visionary items en no ozuno is stated to be an incarnation of a bodhissatva. Neutral's associations with them likely tying to the fact that their incarnations are often in human form. One of the items in the neutral church you can buy in I is also called nyorai statue.

**Christopaganism** refers to the absurption of christian
elements into a pagan paradigm. A similar concept is **Semitic neopaganism**, which is the attempt to create a neopagan belief based on the original pre monotheistic beliefs of the jews. Although neutral is primarily not
jewish or christian toned per say, at times it has elements of those within it. But since these are always secondary it can be seen as a
vaguely christopagan tone. Though notably the term pagan usually
refers to western polytheism, and neutral, though including that, as
seen in game comes off more eastern.

For instance, in iv mastema and the demons are working for the neutral side. But this is only in a side mission and so is placed secondary to the more primary focus on masakado and the goddess of tokyo. Interestingly however, masakado's mission relates to concepts from judaism with the spirits of goodwill and spite being based on the good and evil inclination. So while neutral can respect the presence of angels and demons, the tone of them is not in a monotheistic light, but as elements in a larger polytheistic and humanist belief system, with influence from new age. Likewise, in apocalypse, danu, who is the main representative for neutral is shown using a cross as a symbol in reference to her taking on the role of black maria in iv. Showing christian infuence in her paradigm.

Note also that in some games like
majin tensei ii, it shows that neutral is not against the angels and
demons inherently, with them having a positive relation to the ones
who don't seek to transform the world, sometimes even seeking to be
born into heavenly realms. But this sees those christian elements not
as absolutes in a monotheistic context, but rather as one part of a
bigger picture in a sense. In majin tensei, the main endings are all loosely based on neutral ideology, but involve you allying with the angels and demons who support preserving the world as-is.

**Civil religion** is a sociological theory that a
quasi-religious faith exists within a country, with sacred symbols
drawn from its national history. Scholars have portrayed it as a
cohesive force, a common set of values that foster social and
cultural integration. It is the implicit religious values of a
nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols (such as the
national flag), and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places
(such as monuments, battlefields, or national cemeteries). It is
distinct from churches, although church officials and ceremonies are
sometimes incorporated into the practice of civil religion. In IV the
idea of civil religion is taken to a more extreme level, where tokyo
is literally a goddess who is the main goddess of neutral, and
masakado is the main god, symbolizing the essence of being a national
hero. The raising up of civil symbols to religious significance here
is meant to be tied to the humanist tone.

**Deism** refers to the idea of a god who may have fashioned the world or watches over it, but has little to no interaction with it. When neutral acts pro god, it occasionally calls on this idea, preferring them to have less direct a control over the world.

**Diamond realm.** In Vajrayana Buddhism, the Diamond Realm or
**kongokai** is a metaphysical space inhabited by the Five Wisdom
Buddhas. It is not always seen as a literal realm, but rather a way
to frame into context certain properties of reality or of the
adibuddha. This is the most primary explicit neutral spiritual realm, showing up in three seperate games. Though the only buddha seen in it is en no ozuno, who is said
in the visionary items to be an incarnation of the bodhisattva
vajragarbha.

**Divine spark** is a term in gnosicism for the hidden essence of the divine that exists within humanity. Humans are generally seen as ignorant of the divine spark that exists within them, with it as something that has to be fostered and developed over time with special knowledge. In smt nine, on the neutral route, sophia talks about the divine spark that exists in all beings.

**Ecumenism**. The term "ecumenism" refers to efforts
by Christians of different Church traditions to develop closer
relationships and better understandings. The term can also be used to
refer to unity between different religions, though that is less
common. Neutral is often about trying to get the different religions
to get along more, dropping the aspects that make them incompatible
in the process.

**Gnosis** (literally: knowledge) refers to spiritual knowledge in gnosticism. While neutral does not focus on the idea of spiritual knowldge to the same degree as chaos, in smt nine sophia gives it an offhand mention, talknig about using knowledge to help bring you to yaldabaoth to fight against him.

**Gnostic savior**, while not a commonly used term is a term used to delineate the distinct gnostic idea of the savior from ordinary christian conceptions of it. Different gnostics differed on whether the gnotic savior was an incarnation of the divine son, or whether jesus was merely a human who achieved this status through his own spiritual development. In smt nine's neutral route, sophia refers to you as a gnostic savior for being the one to defeat yaldabaoth. And while gnosticism is not directly mentioned in many games, there seems to be an implicit tone of this in many of them, especially where yhvh is equated to the demiurge.

**Harmony** is a term used to refer to much of the tradition of
ethics in east asia, especially in confucianism. It refers to the
ideal of balancing different things that could otherwise be at odds.
And provides an important context for understanding the eastern
approach to ethics. In an interview for SMTI, when describing lao
tsu, they mention harmony as his goal, saying he appeared before the
main characters to ensure they would seek it as well. Harmony is used
both as a secular and religious term.

**Hope** is a key concept in most major world religions, often
signifying the "hoper" believes an individual or a
collective group will reach a concept of heaven. Depending on the
religion, hope can be seen as a prerequisite for and/or byproduct of
spiritual attainment. Hope is one of the three theological virtues of
the Christian religion, alongside faith and love. "Hope" in
the Holy Bible means "a strong and confident expectation"
of future reward (see Titus 1:2). In modern terms, hope is akin to
trust and a confident expectation". In SMTIV the idea of hope
takes on a religious connotation for neutral, with the filling of the
chalice of hope. Neutral is heavily based on the hope of a good
outcome in spite of a refusal to make sacrifices of anyone to get to
it.

**Human potential movement** is a social movement that existed from the 60s to 80s that had both secular and spiritual aspects. It revolved around the idea that humanity had an intense source of untapped potential that could be tapped into in order to transform and improve the world. Neutral heavily draws on this line of thought talking about the potential of humanity and its capabilities.

**I ching**. The I Ching, also known as Classic of Changes or
Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination text and the oldest
of the Chinese classics. The basis of the i ching is the bagua, whch
is also known as the trigrams, which is seen in the neutral church in
II.

**Incarnation** literally means *embodied in flesh* or
*taking on flesh*. It refers to the conception and birth of a
sentient being who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or
force whose original nature is immaterial. In its religious context
the word is used to mean the descent from Heaven of a god, deity, or
divine being in human/animal form on Earth. For neutral, one major
facet of it is its emphasis on humanism. So many of its gods
deliberately take on human forms, or even incarnate as humans to be
more relatable to humans and to uphold a human image.

En no ozuno was born as a human but demons say he is an
incarnation of a bodhssatva. And taijorokun appears in the form of
lao tsu with the indication that the historical lao tsu was likewise
an incarnation, or at least an avatar. Even figures like steven who
transcended their humanity choose to remain in human form.
Interestingly, while the most well known incarnation is that of
jesus, the games seem to indicate that jesus began as a regular
human. Notably however not all incarnations are associated with
neutral. Half of satan's soul incarnating as zayin for example. But
neutral places significant emphasis on the fact that its major gods
should mainly be beings with a human identity. And so most of them
are humans who became gods while retaining that identity, or are gods
who incarnated as a human. Giving the idea of the incarnation more of
an important spiritual significance for neutral.

**Iconoclasm** is the destroying of icons. The disuse of them
in general is called aniconism. Notably, neutral temples tend to not
have icons in them. Likely to downplay a focus on the beings involved
as actual gods, and to focus more on a general type of spirituality.

**Jungianism** is a term used to refer to the psychology and
spirituality of Carl Jung. While the more general concept of jungian
archetypes is an aspect of how demons function in general, neutral is
more specifically based on some of jung's spiritual writings from
seven sermons to the dead. In this he describes god as representing
unity and morality, and the devil representing the self and impulse.
However, too much of one or the other of these influences is seen as
bad, since to move towards god would be to lack self defining, and to
move to the devil would be to embrace selfishness. He sees the
spirituality of christianity as incomplete because the devil figure
also represents the shadow, and it should call for people to face
their shadow.

This obviously is one of the biggest inspirations even for
mainline. Note that since in persona jung is said to be a person who
actually existed in the past and interacted with their spiritual
dynamic, neutral may more specifically be based literally on jung's
spirituality also.

**Kami** are the spirits or phenomena that are worshipped in the religion of Shinto.
 They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, as well as
beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the
 spirits of venerated dead persons, where it is possible to become a notable kami upon your death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of kami in life. Neutral's shinto tone implies an affiiation with kami, with smtii having the heavenly and earth kami decide at the end that they should work together rather than at odds, implying an overall neutral tone. Though the affiliation is generally not presented as uber explicit. Masakado is also a major kami of tokyo who shows up as a major neutral figure. Note that the affiliation with masakado is heavily region dependant due to the games taking place in japan, and neutral's tone is notably less japanese for games that take place in other areas.

**Kami-buddha teachings,** also known as **Shinbutsu-shugo,** is
the syncretism of Buddhism and kami worship that de facto functioned as
Japan's organized religion and religious paradigm up until the Meiji
period. While many buddhist and shinto sites existed seperate from
eachother, in practice they were seen as part of a bigger picture. This is a facet of neutral's side in the early games, since their temple resembles heavily a shinto one, whereas their spiritual realm is the buddhist diamond realm. This having ties to shugendo practices.

**Kannushi**. A kannushi is the person responsible for the
maintenance of a Shinto shrine as well as for leading worship of a
given kami. The female equivalent is a **miko**, a shrine maiden.
Kannushi are allowed to marry and their children usually inherit
their position. While primarily associated with neutral, law has some
influences from them as well, because post transformation law hero
wears the eboshi, the shinto priest hat.

**Li Hong** is a messianic figure in taoism prophesied to appear at the end of the world cycle to rescue the chosen people. He is depicted in the Taoist Divine Incantations Scripture as an ideal leader who would reappear to set right heaven (tian) and earth (dì) at a time of upheaval and chaos. Li Hong is sometimes considered to be an avatar or reincarnation of Laozi, with whom he shares the surname Li. The appearance of lao tsu / taijorokun in SMTI is presumably based around ths, especially in light of him having a seperate first form he is seen in before revealing his true form.

**National gods** are a class of guardian divinities or deities whose special concern is the safety and well-being of an ethnic group (*nation*), and of that group's leaders. National gode are a large facet of neutral, with several of its gods, such as masakado, the godess of tokyo, and the four devas being depicted as tied to japan in particular. This ties to neutral's emphasis on regionalism and its association with gods who are closer to you.

**National mysticism** is a form of nationalism which raises
the nation to the status of numen or divinity. The idea of the nation
as a divine entity was presented by Johann Gottlieb Fichte. National
mysticism is closely related to Romantic nationalism, but goes beyond
the expounding of romantic sentiment, to a mystical veneration of the
nation as a transcendent truth. In IV, tokyo itself is a literal
goddess who is central to the neutral side.

**Naturalistic pantheism** is a kind of pantheism. It has been
used in various ways such as to relate God or divinity with concrete
things, or the substance of the Universe. God, from these
perspectives, is seen as the aggregate of all unified natural
phenomena. The phrase has often been associated with the philosophy
of Baruch Spinoza, although academics differ on how it is used.

While all the sides view the universe in a way that collapses the
distinction between the natural and the supernatural somewhat,
neutral focuses more explicitly on a kind of grounded but universal
conception of pantheism at times. Which is why in smti lao tsu
highlights the idea of the tao, which although part of a religion
uses language that highlights the connection between tangible things
in reality. Steven himself was talked about in interviews in
relationship to the views of the real steven hawking who denied the
world being created by god, though at times has used vaguely
pantheistic language. With steven in-game having a similar vague
reverence for the axiom.

**Neo-gnosticism** is a term or modern spiritual groups that draw from and encorporate gnostic elements into themselves, but which are distinct from the ancient practice. Often they will have a focus which does not reject the material entirely in the classical gnostic sense, but draws a binary between a higher and lower nature. Carl jung's spirituality in many ways was presented as a neo gnostic belief. Since he associated gnosis with self knowledge, and considered a pychologically grounded spirituality to be based on knowledge rather than faith. Neutral has a lite tone of neo gnosticism in terms of freeing humanity from the demiurge, and orderly systems, but this is ramped up heavily in smt nine.

**Norito** is a term for prayers or rituals in shinto, usually
adressed at a given kami. Due to neutral's association with shinto
and shinto concepts, their prayers likely take on a shinto tone.
Especially regarding masakado as so important a deity for them.

**Omairi** is the term for visiting a shinto shrine and performing the relevant steps involved with doing so. This often involves things like bowing and ringing a bell. Since shinto type shrines are a big aspect of neutral, being their main church in I and II, and showing up in iv too, this likewise is an aspect.

**O-mikuji** are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally "sacred lot",
 these are usually received by making a small offering (generally a
five-yen coin as it is considered good luck) and randomly choosing one
from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. In SMTI you can buy them from the neutral church.

**Philosophical taoism** is a modern term for a metaphysical approach based on taoist metaphysics, but as divorced from treating it as a literal religion. While there is a misconception of philosophical taoism as an ancient thing, it is an exclusively modern invention. Whlie neutral still aknowledges that gods exist, its approach in the early games somewhat resembles this, focusing on a humanist cocneption of spirituality that encorporates the tao.

In terms of philosophy in general being influenced by taoism, the book of tea described how taoism's focus was practical rather than theory based. And it described it as the art of "being in the world." This phrase being in the world was appropriated for heidegger's phenomenology, which later inspired existentialism. So the depiction the neutral peradigm has of associating religious existentialist views with a taoist backdrop relates to this history.

**Pleroma** is a term in gnosticism for the spiritual universe seen in terms of the full totality of the powers and essence of god. While the term is often used in a way that denotes it being a place, its use is meant to refer more to the collection of aeons itself. With it being described as descending when they manifest on earth. In smt nine this is talked about by sophia at the end when she talks about returning there.

**Polydeism** is the idea that many godlike beings exist, but
that they do not interact with our world inany meaningful way, and
perhaps never have, and never will. Neutral upholds aspects of this
not as a descriptive sense, but in a normative sense, holding that
gods should not directly intervene to too large a degree in human
affairs, instead staying remote and acting more as an inspiration /
or to uphold spiritual realms which humans can later be born into.

**Pu** is a Chinese word meaning "uncarved block" that was an early Daoist metaphor for the natural state of humanity, and relates with the Daoist keyword *ziran* (literally "self so") "natural; spontaneous". A large focus of taoism is restoring a natural human state. In megaten, neutral's focus is on how law and chaos uphold ideals that they see as veering far from the natural state of humanity, and neutral seeks to uphold what it sees as natural. In addition to neutral's taoist elements, neutral also views this as similar to the existentialist idea of authenticity, seeking to allow people to be natural both on an overall and individual sense.

**Pure ones** or **sanqing** is a term in taoism for the
three pure ones, who are seen as an embodiment of the tao. They are
regarded as pure manifestation of the Tao and the origin of all
sentient beings. The lowest of these is Taishang LaoJun, who was said
to incarnate on earth as lao tsu. In SMTI, taishang laojun appears as
the main representative of neutral, in the form of lao tsu. And in an
interview they call him an embodiment of nature, implying the tao.
And at the end of the game he describes the tao on the neutral
ending. As such, he is one of the highest gods of the neutral side,
being an embodiment of the ultimate. Though notably, in strange
journey the three wisemen for law may also be partially an interpretation of
the three pure ones. But are depicted in abrahamic language rather
than direct taoist language.

The use of taishang laojun in this way likely ties to how while in most taoism the jade emperor is seen as the highest deity, certain branches consider it a higher teaching to venerate the three pure ones. So in the context of smti, his presence may be presenting yhvh like a jade emperor-like figure who he is taking a role of presenting himself as higher than. Interestingly, this read on it would be giving it a kind of gnostic theme, where he takes a role akin to sophia.

**Religious existentialism** refers to applying the idea of
existentialism to religious questions, or taking it in a religious
angle. While the games themselves have an overarching element of religious existentialism in the sense of you ultimately having to make your own choice about religion, neutral has it in a more explicit sense, with an ethical dynamic heavily inspired by existentialism. And so a large focus is placed on authenticity and in choosing your own endpoint, with gods being seen as representations of different endpoints.

**Religious humanism** is an integration of humanist ethical
philosophy with congregational but often non-theistic rituals and
community activity which center on human needs, interests, and
abilities. Self-described religious humanists differ from secular
humanists mainly in that they regard the humanist life stance as
their religion and organise using a congregational model. Religious
humanism is a classic example of a nontheistic belief. Note that
religious humanism can be an aspect mixed with a traditionally
theistic religion, and humanism in general originally developed in a
christian paradigm. Humanism is not atheistic per say, but places
more emphasis on the human person. Note regarding neutral's humanist
tone, many of them are more secular rather than religious humanists.
But there are aspects of each in the side.

Note one further aspect of the religious humanism stems from how
neutral refers to ethics. In contrast to law which uses the concept
of sin to define its ethics, neutral when referring to ethics tends
not to use religious terminology, even if talking as a religious
figure. So it rejects the concept of theologizing its ethical
dynamic, instead opting to focus more on autonomous terms.

**Religious pluralism** refers to a number of different beliefs
involving multiple religions, ranging from tolerance on a societal
level, to personally practicing multiple at once. Neutral's religious
views tend to uphold an approach that involves preserving and drawing
from multiple religions. Notably, law and chaos both have religious
diversity within them, but each obviously still has a central
paradigm. This is shown most clearly in majin tensei ii, where
michael and lucifer are working together to preserve relative
neutrality on earth. And in IV where in a side mission for neutral,
you help mastema seal the angels. Mastema still implying he takes the
messian religion seriously, but rejecting its law leaning slant in
favor of a more moderate one.

An additional aspect to note about this is that figures who
support neutral overall may still want to be born into a heavenly or
demonic realm of various kinds. Neutral is about keeping the earth
as-is, and those things being kept away from transforming it. But
that does not preclude neutral figures wanting to be born there. Note
that not all angels or demons seek to transform the worlds. Which
again, calling back to majin tensei ii, many want to keep the worlds
in balance, and allow humans to seek out those realms if they will.

**Ryobu shinto** refers to the particular form of shinto mixed with shingon buddhism, in which the higher kami are seen as manifestations of buddhas, specifically amaterasu as a manifestation of vairochana. While not a major plot element, the association of amaterasu and the amatsu with the diamond realm in smtii hints at drawing on such a perspective. Although notably, vairochana himself is not associated with the area, despite being in the game.

**Shinto shrine**. A shinto shrine or **jinja** is a
structure whose main purpose is to house one or more kami. Its most
important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects, and
not for worship. Structurally, a Shinto shrine is usually
characterized by the presence of a honden or sanctuary, where the
kami is enshrined. The honden may however be completely absent, as
for example when the shrine stands on a sacred mountain to which it
is dedicated, and which is worshiped directly. A **hokora** is a
small shinto shrine by the roadside not under the property of a
larger shrine, and a **setsumatsusha** is a small shrine that is
the property of a larger shrine.

Neutral's religion is heavily based on shinto in structure, with
the neutral churches in both smti and ii being based on shinto
shrines and centering around the mirror of shinto. Despite its
humanist elements this implies a tone of communicating with spirits
in these cases. However, this may imply the indirect communication of
spirits as an alternative to them directly transforming earth and
living on its surface. Since some shinto kami are not personified
individuals, but rather vague spiritual essence this may also be
being used as a stand in for a kind of nature worship.

**Secular ethics** is a branch of moral philosophy in which
ethics is based solely on human faculties, and not derived from
supernatural revelation or guidance. While the alignments are all
based on moral philosophies that don't particularly need reference to
theism to make sense of them, some of them like law do use religious
language such as the word sin to express them, and in-game the groups
derive this information from spiritual forces recounting information
to them. While the fact that these are literal beings blurs the line
between religious and secular ethics, neutral tends to hold to
secular ethics in a more explicit way. Tending to more deliberately
not refer to it with religious terminology when referring to ethics
itself. This being though even though neutral still has a religion
and gods. Note that while neutral talks about the tao which has moral
ramifications, it tends to never use this language when talking about
ethics itself so as not to imply something external having dominion
over mankind. This is not merely about the nature of being external to religion however, but also has to do with the above shinto concept of benevolent silence.

**Shadow** is a term from jungian psychology and spirituality
that refers to the aspect of the self that you deny. Part of
spiritual growth being seen as facing and accepting it. In IV,
lucifer talks about how neutral's goal is not necessarily to deny
demons, but to embrace them as shadows. And so demons here represent
this denial of the self not necessarily on an individual, but a
collective societal level.

**Shintai** are physical objects worshipped at or near Shinto
shrines as repositories in which spirits or kami reside. Shintai used
in Shrine Shinto (Jinja Shinto) can be also called mitamashiro
(spirit replacement or substitute). One of the most well known
shintai is the mirror of shinto. In both smti and ii the mirror of
shinto shows up on the altar of the neutral churches. While neutral
tends to dislike spirits directly interacting with or shaping the
world, this implies that neutral is more willing to interact with
them using a medium. Perhaps for personal guidance.

**Shugendo** is a religion or practice founded by en no ozuno
that merges aspects of shinto, taoism, and vajrayana buddhism.
Practitioners are called **Shugenja** or **Yamabushi.** It is a
kami-buddha practice, which is a term for teachings that merge the
idea of buddhas with shinto beliefs. Its practitioners seek to
undergo rigorous physical and spiritual training in order to achieve
a long life. It is a large basis for neutral, with en no ozuno being
seen personally as the holy figure in charge of the diamond realm in
many games, and with neutral figures in I looking like yamabushi. And
also ties to the merging of taoism, shinto, and vajrayana buddhism,
all of which show up as an aspect of neutral in smti.

In one of the visionary items an no ozuno says that man's mind is infinite, but his body is finite, and so you need to train the finite body to make it reach the infinite mind. In shidengo, a large part of their beliefs is the idea that to train the mind you need to train the body. And so it was more focused on physical training than many eastern traditions.

**Spiritual but not religious (SBNR)** is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion, but in contemporary usage spirituality has often become associated with the interior life of the individual while religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions.

In terms of neutral, this relates to how law and chaos both have organized religions (though to varying degrees of organization), whereas neutral is more ambiguous on this front. While there are neutral churches, the neutral characters themselves tend to only have more of a loose affiliation with them. Going to them, but not necessarily identifying it as a core aspect of their identity. And the neutral endings themselves often are not strictly delineated as being associated with these churches.

**Tao** is a word used in all ofchinese religion that
translates to "way", but a more accuratetranslation might
be something more like “principle.' The tao is like a pattern
through reality that is simultaneously the summation of it, but also
in some sense that which gives rise to it. This giving rise to it is
not just in the sense of being an external thing which creates it,
but rather an underlying tendency that is inherently within and the
basis of everything that manifests. Although considered in a slightly
pantheistic sense, it is also similar to something like karma or
dharma. Its a logic or natural order that reality exists byvirtue of.
While similar to the western idea of logos, one of theimportant parts
to understand about tao is that it is not a staticorder. It is
described as flowing. Carrying reality forward. In SMTI taijorokun
appears on neutral to use the tao as a description of the overall
structure of reality. Making it a basis of the big picture view of
neutral spirituality.

Although the tao is seen as something that existed before reality,
the emphasis in taoism is not on the transcendent, but on the
immanent. The book of tea says that the taoist absolute is the
relative. It is in the manifestation of reality that it is truly
complete. And to it the present is part of the moving infinity.
Another important facet of the tao is that it is not something
abstract to be known intellectually, but tangibly to be known through
being in the world. This idea of being in the world influenced
heidegger, who influenced the existentialists, and so ties to neutral
using taoist concepts for existentialist reasoning. Confucianism also
has its own use of the word tao that divides it into tiantao, the tao
of heaven, and rendao, the dao of humanity, with the former being
seen as ineffable, and the latter being seen as a more practical path
for generation of virtues in humanity. While mainly associated with
neutral, yhvh also uses the word tao on law in ii when dying, asking
the question of how you will find your path without him.

**Tao te ching**. The tao te ching is a Chinese classic text
traditionally credited to the 6th-century BC sage Laozi, which along
with the zhuangzi are considered the foundational texts of taoism. In
the remakes of the early games it shows up as an item that gives you
a visionary cutscene about lao tsu. Showing that it is still an
existing relevant item for neutral. Since neutral spirituality is
heavily based on taoism, it is likely somewhat relevant to them,
although since little emphasis is placed on it it shouldn't be
thought of as the equivalent of a neutral bible.

**Te** refers to the tao as understoodas it regards humans.
Note that tao means way, and has both a humanand universal aspect. Te
refers to the human aspect of tao. Andtranslates to virtue or power.
Note that the tao in general is thelogic or flow of the universe. The
implication here is that humansare a microcosm of it. And so in some
sense the same “logic” thatupholds the flow of reality in
general, is the same type of thingthat upholds the logic of morality,
and what it is for humans to beproperly moral. Since the tao is an
aspect of the spiritual focus of neutral, te applies in the
individual sense. Although note that due to neutral's secular tone,
even if there is an implicit tone of te as the tao derived ethics,
that they tend to not use religious language to describe their
ethical slant.

**The Bodhisattva vow** is the vow taken by Mahayana Buddhists
to liberate all sentient beings. A bodhissatva is a buddha or a being
close to being one who chooses to keep incarnating in the world in
order to help those within it rather than resting permanently in
paranirvana. Note that although liberation in the buddhist sense does
not seem to be a major goal of neutral, en no ozuno is referred to as
an incarnation of a bodhissatva in the visionary items. Implying a
shift of the concept of them from buddhist liberation, to spiritual
figures who help humanity in general.

**The Four Heavenly Kings** are four Buddhist gods, which originates from the Indian version of Lokapalas, each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world. They are the servants of indra, and reside in mount meru. Buddhist temples often include their four statues. In many of the megaten games they are neutral forces who protect japan from spiritual threats. In smti they are depicted as serving masakado rather than indra. Though in strange journey they are chaos rather than neutral.

**The middle way** refers to the buddhist concept of
moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and
self-mortification. In IVA, steven refers to neutral as the middle
path, which is likely meant to explicitly reference this. So it is
tied to a religious concept of balance being used to contextualize
it.

**Three treasures** or **sanbao** is a term for the basic three virtues in taoism. These three treasures are compassion (**ci**), moderation (**jian**), and "daring to not be first in the world." (**Bugan wei tianxia xian**) These are a basis of why lao tsu was chosen as a main representative of neutral in smti. Because the middle one of moderation is closely tied to the taoist concept of the uncarved block and naturalness, seeking to not live in any means sharply removed from naturalness. While this ethic is not about balance per say, its focus on moderation can be appropriated for such a description especially in the sense that the tao te ching rejects overt over the top transformative moral efforts (which taoists saw the confucian attempt to structure society as an example of).

The third one about daring not to be first ties to not preemptively engaging in things seen to be dangerous or transformative. Which ties to the fact that lao tsu talks about in the visionary items how some accuse his way of seeming cowardly, but it is to avoid people getting swept up in his current. The last two combined relate to how the taoist sage acts economically, accomplishing a lot with a little in the way of action. Which also relates to how the neutral representatives often refrain from directly engaging in battle.

**Tuatha de** is a term for the group of the main deities of pre christian ireland. They were seen as a group that triumphed over the fomorians to establish order in ireland. They are a large inspiration for the later folklore ideas of **fairies**. In apocalypse, the fairies are presented as a downgraded form of the tuatha de, and these are presented as the main relevant neutral demon race, and the one in-game that is most benevolent to humans. Although notably not much religious significance is placed on thier presence.

**Tutelary deity**. A tutelary deity is a deity or spirit
 who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place,
geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. Various religions ranging from greek ones to shinto have tutelary deities. Tutelary deities are a large facet of the neutral side. Oftentimes the gods that are highlighted for neutral, such as masakado, the four devas, or the godess of tokyo are depicted not as universal or worldwide gods, but as gods specific to the location the games take place in. And so there is an implied regionalism to neutral's spiritual paradigm to some degree, strongly preferring interaction with specifically local deities that one is more intimately connected to. In side materials, atlus describes guardian deities as evolving from the idea of weathful gods.

**Wu Wei**. Which translates to **non action**, but in
practice means something closer to **Action without effort**  and
**naturalness** are envisioned by them as the highestideals of
practice. (Though do not inherently have connotations ofpositive
morality, since evil beings can likewise learn this).Basically, again
calling to mind animals, they saw it as peoplesimply acting without
having to stop and think about it. And the markof a true sage. In the
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu explains that beings (orphenomena) that are
wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in acompletely natural,
uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practicefor the human being
is, according to Lao Tzu, the attainment of thispurely natural way of
behaving, as when the planets revolve aroundthe sun. The planets
effortlessly do this revolving without any sortof control, force, or
attempt to revolve themselves, instead engagingin effortless and
spontaneous movement. Like how sailing downstreamhas the water do
most of the action for you. But one could try tosail upstream only to
realize nothing is accomplished by it.

This is one reason behind the strongtie between taoism and
neutrality. This action without action hasconnotations of being a
lite or subtle action. One encourages virtuenot by trying to put it
into practice without rest, which is seen asunnatural, but by having
it implicitly in a subtle way. It criticizesthose who go out of their
way to do good in an aggrandized way,saying that the foolish try to
be good, but the wise do not evenrecognize their own goodness, since
it is natural to them. It says agood man does little yet much is
done, yet a foolish one does muchbut little is accomplished. And when
a disciplinarian does somethingand no one responds, he rolls up his
sleeves in an attempt to enforceorder. The connotations here that are
being interpreted as heavilyneutral are just that. It values virtue,
but accuses law of doing itin an unnatural far reaching way, and
being the disciplinarian inthis context. And instead neutral values a
more subtle virtue. Incontrast, compare with the new testament
implication of people givingall the money they have and transforming
society radically. Whichties into christianity's law associations.

Obviously neutral's inspirations taken from this are not identical
to that as it is seen in taoism. But a focus is taken on merging the
idea with that of natural existence, which ties to neutral's
rejection of sharp deviations from what it sees as normal human
nature. Instead focusing on being better while upholding this natural
existence.

**Xian** is a taoist term for an enlightened person. Seen as an immortal and celestial being. It is the highest achievement state of the taoist **sage**, one who has in a sense transcended thier humanity. This focus on the transcendent human who can live forever is a large focus of neutral, with its main figures often being post humans in this sense. The large focus on taoism in the early games sets a tone of the taoist interpretation of immortals. Note the contrast against buddhist enlightened ones who seek not to live forever, but to cease to have a personal identity.

**Yetzer hara** and **yetzer hatov** are the hebrew terms for the **evil inclination** and the **good inclination**. The good inclination is the inner conscience of humanity that drives them to do that which is good. the evil inclination, despite its name is not evil in and of itself, but is the misuse of things humans need to survive. I.E. they need to eat, and so are driven to eat, but this inclination can lead them to be gluttons. Basically, people need to have an interest in self preservation to survive, but this interest can be extended into selfishness. The interplay between these two forces is a large aspect of judaism, because it is said that the evil inclination is necessary in order for reality to exist, and this is seen as giving context for the problem of evil. In the sense that yetzer hara is seen as a necessary evil, the interplay of these has been comapred to yin and yang.

In SMTIV these seem to be the basis of the great spirit of goodwill and the great spirit of spite. This being because in japan they are called good-intention and ill-intention. And derive from angels and demons, which are the associations given in judaism. Neutral takes this idea of the necessary existence of the evil inclination and views it through a jungian lens that compares it to the shadow. Similar as jung did to actual demons. This is reflected in how the right answers for the final bosses on neutral is not that you entirely reject the influences of law and chaos, but accept yet remain aloof from them.

This is further expanded in iv with the presence of mastema on the neutral side. Mastema in iv appears in a similar capacity as his role in the dead sea scrolls where he is given permission by god to command demons and use them to tempt humanity. Here, rather than tempting, mastema commands demons and is working for neutral with an inlciation of fostering human development through the balance of these forces. Seeing the potential temptation of selfishness necessary for humans to develop a more comprehensive self image.

**Yin** and **Yang** are representations of seemingly
contradictoryforces being part of the unified whole. And these divide
into evenmore divisions, and into the “ten thousand things” which
refersto everything that exists. Yang translates to **sunny side**,
and yin to**shady side**. The important thing to note is that yin
and yang have multiple different uses as a concept. The point of them
is not always to balance them, but rather that both inherently always
exist. Yang is often considered "better" and the point of
their balance is not that yin is as good but that you have to take
the bad with the good. Whether yin is considered bad actively, or
just slightly detrimental differs based on what you are talking
about. The presence of lao tsu as a major neutral figure, as well as
their use of the symbol implies that they see law and chaos as
intertwined in this way.

**Ziran** or **naturalness** is a key concept in taoism that
literally means "self so," and thus translates loosely to
"natural" or "in the course of events." The word
ziran comes from the tao te ching as a way to describe the tao as
something simply acting according to its nature. To become nearer to
a state of ziran, one must become separate from unnatural influences
and return to an entirely natural, spontaneous state. Ziran has been
interpreted a variety of ways over time, but is closely tied to wu
wei.

In terms of neutral this concept is a large basis for the
association neutral has with taoism. Since neutral upholds an idea of
preserving the natural state and upholding people acting in natural
ways, seeing law and chaos as things that involve sharp deviations
from them. (although notably, chaos also argues that it counts as
natural). The ideal neutral spiritual figure then still upholding
major neutral tones, and preserving the human conception of nature.
Though law and chaos see this more like a status quo bias.

**Zuowang** is a classic taoist meditation
 technique, described as, "a state of deep trance or intense absorption,
 during which no trace of ego-identity is felt and only the underlying
cosmic current of the Dao is perceived as real." While this is not the only neutral form of meditation obviously, this type of focus is brought up by taishang laoJun in the neutral ending of smti, telling you to focus on your connection to the tao. Noticably, since neutral tends to reject the diminishing of the focus on one's personal identity, it would likely be adapted in a sense so as not to do so.

## Chaos

**Abhicara** or subjugation is one of the four activities of buddhist tantrism. This has connotations of both subjugation of internal defilemenets as well as external enemies, especially those seen as enemies of buddhism. Having connotations similar to black magic in the sense of ritual designed to bring about someone's destruction. This is a large element of chaos and its tantric focus, especially in its conflation of both mastery of the self, and external enemies.

**Adharma** is the Sanskrit antonym of Dharma. It means 'that
which is not in accord with the Dharma'. While chaos is not seen
often using the term dharma, its associations with karma imply that
it is likely a term they use from time to time. The term adharma does
show up in digital devil saga as an opposite of dharma.

**Amatsukami**. While in many of the games chaos is less associated with amatsukami, being more affiliated with kunitsukami, in smtv the light-chaos route has amatsukami as reps, showing what it sees as a positive japan-protecting variant of chaos, in contrast to what might harm it done by the dark-chaos demons.

**Anthrosophy**. In anthrosophy, lucifer is the demon of chaos and open endedness, to contrast satan / ahriman as the demon of order. This being stated to be a major basis for the plot of smtii.

**Antinomianism** is any view which rejects laws or legalism
and is against moral, religious or social norms, or is at least
considered to do so. The term has both religious and secular
meanings. In Christianity, an antinomian is one who takes the
principle of salvation by faith and divine grace to the point of
asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the moral law. Antinomianism is also a facet of many tantric dharmic traditions, which chaos is heavily based on. Chaos
has some elements of antinomianism, because it is not merely an
independent system, but has active elements of rejecting external
existing laws or precepts.

The description for the unit fallen monk says:  Monks that
consider destruction supreme. Normally, those who break precepts are
considered depraved monks. In Gaeanism, however, they are actually
carrying out their faith. So the deliberate breaking of ordinary
conceptions of moral codes is an element of their faith in order to
show freedom from them. Virochana even says he provides salvation to
all who ask him, regardless if they are good or evil. Providing a
more explicit antinomian connotation even for the more helpful
aspects of chaos.

**Aum shinrikyo** is a modern japanese cult based on buddhism (with some western religion inspirations) that believed that world war iii would be an apocalyptic event that involved the us nuking japan, and that its members would become the survivors who led the new world after the apocalypse. The gaians seem to be inspired by this group somewhat, having similar beliefs, a propensity to violence, and even using an om as a symbol similar to the group. The main god of aum shinrikyo is shiva, and the associations of shiva of destruction for the sake of development are also a major one of gaians (as well as shiva often being chaos aligned, even if not usually showing up as a character).

**Autotheism** is the idea of the self as a god. This can be
based on the idea that everyone is their own god relative to
themselves, or that one has an inner calling to become divine, among
other things. One aspect of chaos is throwing off the right of any
external force to claim authority over you. But in a more specific
sense, many take in demons and seek to improve, to the point where
they might eventually become a god. Notably, it is obviously only
those who accomplish a lot who will succeed at becoming a literal god
over others. In practice the weak still comply with the strong who
exist over them in chaos.

**Bels**. Bel, signifying "lord" or "master", is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in the Mesopotamian religion of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. The feminine form is Belit 'Lady, Mistress'. It began as a name for marduk, and was later used for various gods, many of whom were associated with or derived from marduk. The term **baal** is a later version of the term. Many of the gods associated with chaos are bels implied to be demonized form of caananite o babylonian gods. In devil survivor they are depicted as deriving from the original bel marduk.

**Buddhas** in buddhism are beings who have achieved the highest level of spiritual enlightenment. One who merely frees themself from rebirth by unbinding the fetters than bind them to it is known as an arhat. But a buddha is a higher being who is free from all afflictions of ignorance. They are seen as divine beings who are free from the cycle of samsara, and as fully awake in terms of supramundane knowledge and awareness. The final dissolution of a buddha from the world is known as paranirvana, after which they won't incarnate again.

Buddhas are seen as a major theme of the chaos side. In smti there is a buddha statue in their church. and in SMTII the adi buddha vairocana is a figure working for chaos.In Strange journey, mem aleph takes on a form resembling a buddha. And maitreya in apocalypse is seen as chaos leaning. Even sanat kumara in iv is interpreted as being based on the thousand arm buddha. Notably though, while the final goal of buddhism is to cease incarnating and to cease existing as a distinct being, most chaos figures do not seek this as a goal (though some are implied to). Rather, chaos seems to be based on a buddhist modernist reinterpretation of buddhism into a life affirming ideal in which the goal of non clinging ties to acceptance of the dynamic nature of the world, not seeking to cling to any given state. And in which buddhas are respected for their high attainments in strength and wisdom.

**Buddhist modernism** refers to one of any numer of new movements based on modern era reinterpretations of Buddhism. This can refer to secular buddhism, or other types of buddhism that have emerged in modern day that significantly change the purpose, many of which change the concept of paranirvana or drop it altogether. For instance, since secular buddhists do not believe in rebirth, by extension their practices are not undertaken for the goal of freeing you from it, but for upholding a specific frame of mind in the world. Chaos has a heavily buddhist tone, even using buddha statues in their temples, but this tone has a large aspect of buddhist modernism, because unlike traditional buddhists they do not necessarily see the highest goal as freeing yourself from rebirth, but rather living in a life affirming way and growing in power.

**Chaos gnosticism** is a term used for satanic beliefs that
are inspired by Gnosticism, and involve some form of focus on
knowledge. Mainly associated with the temple of the black light, who
view angels as archons and demons as forces that will defeat the
universe of order, restoring it to one of chaos. Chaos of course is
heavily based on this, being based on satanism and having a focus on
obtaining knowledge. With "knowledge" here being the same
thing as the knowledge from the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
which in-game translates to the psychological orientation to
realization and willingness to act on selfishly oriented action.

**Chaos**. Note that the term chaos used in the games by the
chaos side is not merely a generic term, but also a religious one.
Satanic groups like the temple of the black light refer to their
ideology as **Chaosophy**, and consider chaos to be an explicit
religious term associated with the power of lucifer. Chaos is used as
a somewhat religious term at various points in the game, and especially the term power of chaos. Sanat also
referred to the potential for development as the seeds of chaos. Tying chaos to the ideas of change and growth. And when belial dies in iv he says glory be to chaos. The kabbalic term for chaos is **tohu**, which some satanic qabbalists have appropriated as a positive term.

**Chthonic deities** refer in greek religion specifically to deities who live in the underworld, with the word **chthonic** by itself referring to the types of rites necessary to pay homage to them. These were still seen as positive beings in greek religion, though some of them were seen as lesser than the olympians. Chaos has a tone of this in its dynamic, since makai is often seen as a subterannean type of realm, and they are often associated with the earth, or from arising from beneath it. This association is more explicit due to the presence of hecate working for chaos, who is one of the chthonic deities.

**Crossing the Abyss.** In Thelemic mysticism, the Abyss is the
great gulf or void between the phenomenal world of manifestation and
its noumenal source. To crowley, crossing the abyss is a term for an
aspect of spiritual enlightenment that involves moving past the
belief in the discrete self, similar to enlightenment in buddhism,
and which grants you the status of master of the temple. Though
notably, for crowley this process is still individualistic, and
results in seeing your will as part of the cosmic order, which
upholds those who act egoistically like orbits of planets, and in
which the crushing of the weak is simply part of this order. While
later satanists draw much inspiration from crowley, they often
downplay the idea of being part of a universal order in this sense.

In II you see crowley as a large inspiration for the chaos side,
him showing up in person. While the translation of makai / the
expanse into abyss in the fantranslation is not a literal
translation, its abyssal nature as well as the process of moving
across it in a tree of life based pattern does loosely call thelemic
mysticism to mind. Note that chaos considers itself
as upholding nature, and the egoistic striving against eachother to
be a thing happening in tune with nature. And becoming part of the
natural unfolding chaos of the world. So those thelemite elements are
present in an explicit degree, due to the presence of crowley.

**Cult** is a term to refer to a social group defined by its
unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or its common
interest in a particular personality, object or goal. Normally it has
connotations of being different from the dominant culture. In the
earlier games the chaos side religion was called the cult of gaia, in
reference to its counter cultural nature. Though in later games this
is changed to the ring of gaia.

**Darkness** is a common association of demons and fallen
angels, to contrast the idea of the divine light. Sometimes this
darkness is taken as the mere absence of god, but at other times it
is presented like a tangible force. The satanic temple of the black
light talks about how unlike blinding light that is impartial, satan
offers the black light which allows you to see by your own power. And
that the black light is seen as mere darkness by those who are not
capable. The games likewise associate darkness with the chaos side.
Note of course that some chaotic beings are associated with light
too, but overall darkness is the larger association.

**Deity yoga** is a practice of Vajrayana Buddhism involving identification with a chosen deity through visualisations and rituals, and the realisation of emptiness. Deity yoga is often considered to be what separates Buddhist Tantra practice from the practices of other Buddhist schools. Deity yoga involves a focus on one's chosen deity, and ultimately identification with them, to realize the fundamental nature that you and them are in essence the same or non-dual. There are many deities that can be chosen from in this practice, ranging from from specific deities to more general typesof deities. Most deities associated with deity yoga are wrathful incarnations, rather than peaceful images.

These deities are visualized not as tangible, but as illusory, often depicted as like a body made of translucent light, showing the underlying emptiness of all phenomena. Deity yoga generally has two stages, the first called the generation stage when one visualizes the deity and identifies with it, and the second the completion stage where they dissapate the image, to show that the underlying emptiness beyond is what makes this possible. The completion stage may also include subtle body energy practices.

Deity yoga is a large aspect of shingon buddhism. And tantric buddhism in general is one of the main basis-es of chaos, especially in the first game, where their symbol is the tantric om. In SMTI the unit dark priest is described as a skilled practitioner of esoteric shingon practices. and so is tied to it from there. Likewise, in IV a gaian transforms into a dakini, showing the identification with tantric deities.

While chaos has a large dharmic aspect, they do have some aspects that differ from normal vajrayana practices. For instance, their focus on maya underlies the fact that most of them are not mainly seeking buddhist paranirvana, but utilizing these practices to help foster personal identity and in a more worldly sense. Likewise, they extent to which they have deity yoga is likely mixed with their call to embrace and identify with the demonic within in general. To many, this type of practice is mixed with identification and manifesting one's own inner demonic qualities, rather than exclusively pre existing forms.

Notably, deity yoga focuses on the deities mainly in terms of archetypes, rather than as literal beings. This does not mean that these beings are thought not to exist, but that in the focus on the underlying emptiness the focus is on the emptiness of all being, and thus the nondual connection one has to manifest these properties themselves. And so in this sense it ties to megaten's view of demons as archetypes in general. This focus on nondual unity with the archetypes also ties to chaos' focus on a lack of need to comply with external authorities.

**Destruction**. In the context of the hindu ideas of creation,
preservation, and destruction / metamorphosis, law is associated with
preservation, whereas chaos is associated with destruction. In
keeping with this pattern, krishna / vishnu is depicted as a
character on the law side, with shiva normally showing up chaos
aligned. Though these terms used as specific terms of major
significance has the most relevance in SMTIV.

**Destruction and rebirth**. The gods associated with chaos have a tone of being gods of both destruction and reconstruction, and seek to uphold a cycle of highs and lows. The gaian priest also talks about how destruction is necessary to pave the way for rejuvenation. This cycle having a kind of religious significance for them.

**Deus otiosus** is a term for a creator god who resigns from interaction with the world and largely allows its functioning to be done by other beings. Mem aleph has aspects of this, since while she is the creator god of chaos, its main figure is lucifer and she is generally not referred to directly nor implied to take actions in most instances.

**Demonolatry** or **Devil worship** refers to worship of beings who are
explicitly acknowledged to be evil or dangerous. It is an aspect of
chaotic spirituality at times. In their earliest appearances, the
cult of gaia was called the cult of deva, with members being called
devans. With the name presumably implying devil.

**Dharma** in hinduism signifies behaviors that are considered
to be in accord with Ṛta, the order that makes life and universe
possible, and includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and
"right way of living", In Buddhism, *dharma* means
"cosmic law and order. While normal chaos figures are not often
seen using this as a term to explain morality (though in II several of them have an attack with the word dharma in it), maitreya from the ring
of gaia does so, and their strong buddhist and hindu slant as well as
their ties to the idea of karma implies it is in common use by them.
Note that krishna is on the law side in smti, so there is no
guarantee that it is never used for law either. and in dds the hindu
slant also shows it as a term in their world. It is not clear how
much chaos would use this as a description for their ethics, but
their heavily dharmic tone implies that buddhist concepts would
likewise be in some use. Mainly for those members who are following more the vein of vairochana in II.

**Distributive pantheism** is the view
that each thing in existence each bears the qualities to be
considered somewhat divine, and so is divine independently. Such as
in certain animistic or neopagan beliefs. This may or may not also include a concept of a collective divinity. Chaos has aspects of this, since while it does revere nature in a collective sense it tends to avoid or reject venerating any transcendent unity such as the great will. Instead viewing divinity as immanent and pluriform. Note that while chaos embodies the autotheistic views of viewing yourself as your own ultimate authority, it only upholds high exemplars as true divinities for others also.

**Eclecticism** is the practice of deriving ideas, style, or
taste from a broad and diverse range of sources. Note that while all
the sides are syncretist, chaos more specifically is identified as
eclectic, with the lady in black describing the gaians as taking
doctrine from many areas because they thought the truth can be found
in chaos.

**Eight million kami** is a phrased used in shinto to delineate the idea that there are so many kami they are in essence uncountable. In the japanese version of SMTV this phrase is explicitly used to delineate the restoration of the old gods.

**Emperor worship** or an **imperial cult** is a form of
state religion in which an emperor or a dynasty of emperors (or
rulers of another title) are worshipped as demigods or deities. This
has been a facet of many polytheistic cultures, ranging from ancient
egypt to japan. While chaos does not uphold the idea of emperors as
in a stable position, its structure does uphold those who seek and
maintain the top positions to both be, and be seen as literal
divinities. Chaos in many ways is based on the type of buddhism known
as imperial way buddhism that was present in japan before WWII in
which buddhas while respected were placed secondary to the figure of
the emperor. Which likewise highlights how on chaos buddhas are not
always the highest figures, but warlord leaders such as lucifer
maintain that position.

**Ephemerality** is the concept of things being transitory,
existing only briefly. Typically the term ephemeral is used to
describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide
range of things, such as human life or endeavors. Although they don't
use the term, to contrast law's focus on the eternal, chaos focuses
on the ephemeral, and the short lasting nature of things. This is
interpreted in a normative sense, seeking for things to change to
make way for the new. With lucifer in sj talking about how a world
that lacks meaningful change is practically nonexistence.

**Esotericism** are doctrines designed for only a small
specialized group to be able to understand or practice. To contrast
the wider scope exoteric nature of law, chaos instead is elitist
seeking for only the superior to be able to practice. Chaos is described as heavily based on shingon buddhism in smti which is an esoteric teaching that had closely guarded its teachings, keeping the non initiated from knowing about them for centuries. With the first book on it published in all of history not being written until the 1940s, despite it being an over a thousand year old tradition.

**Fallen angels**. In Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are
angels who were expelled from heaven. Despite the chaos side having a
tone of christian demons, many of them are not fallen angels, but
demonized gods. Lucifer is a fallen angel however, and the tone of
fallen angels shows that it is not merely a side of chaos, but has an
explicit tone of rebellion.

**Fertility deities**. A fertility deity is a god or goddess associated with fertility or growth. In some cases these deities are directly associated with these experiences; in others they are more abstract symbols. While they have some overlap with the idea of mother godesses, fertility deities are not associates specifically with motherhood, but with the idea of sexual union itself, often used as a metaphor for growth. Such as ishtar. They are also not required to be female. Chaos has a large focus on fertility and on the rejuvination that comes after destruction.

**Wrathful deities** or fierce deities refer to gods in
buddhism that specifically incarnate in wrathful forms to represent
their willingness to persecute evil. They are also a major focus in
tantric practices. Although many chaos demons look demonic due to
demonization, some look this way deliberately as part of the
aesthetic of conveying a wrathful incarnation. Notably, this is also the underlying logic of the appearance of satan for the law side.
Since he looks dharmic in nature to some degree also.

**Gaianism** or **nature-worship** is asimilar concept to
pantheism, although some would consider it aseparate belief. It is a
belief that earth in and of itself should berevered as a higher force
or superorganism that all life comes fromand returns to, noting the
importance of an environment to provide abackground for the arising
of individual life. This is sometimescombined with other forms of
theism, or alternately some see it asnontheistic. It is somewhat
pantheistic in the looser sense, thoughobviously one notes that the
earth is not reality as a whole. Someexpand this of course to meaning
nature at large, but the earth inthe immediate and practical sense.

The chaos side in game uses the word gaian for themselves
highlighting this as a core element of their beliefs. Their focus on
larger forces tends not to take a universal pantheistic tone but
rather one of relation to the ecosystem in a more dynamic
particularist way. Thus preserving the sense of individuality and
autonomy.

**Gassho** is a buddhist symbol of piety that involves pressing the palms together. It is used in prayer, but can also be used in greeting or apology. Various chaotic figures are seen standing in this pose, such as asura and atavaka.

**God-king** is a term used to delineate a king who is also seen as a god. This is often seen as because they descended from deities, but there were other times this status was conferred. For chaos, the different areas are ruled by demon kings who are also often polytheistic gods. This has a double sided aspect, both because gods rule as warlords, but also because rulers are depicted as able to raise to the status of gods, by embracing demonic power.

**Gnosis** refers to spiritual knowledge in gnosticism that can
help free you from dark spiritual forces. The chaos side emphasizes
the concept of "knowledge" in a way related to this (see
chaos gnosticism above), but here it refers to the concept of
knowledge of good and evil. Which implies orientation to selfish
action. Something they seek to use to free themself from a compliant
order. In IV you also get a weapon named after sophia for defeating the demiurge on chaos. Though notably, sophia herself only shows up on neutral in the series.

**Grotto**. A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by
humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or
prehistorically. Today, artificial grottoes are purchased and built
for ornamental and devotional purposes. They are often used as
shrines in which to place statues of saints, particularly the Virgin
Mary, in outdoor gardens. In makai, many of the people live in
grottoes, likely in keeping with their ties to the earth, and by
extension that means their internal religious structures take place
there.

**Hell** is a term used as a motif by chaos, though ironically
they don't refer to the place they live as hell ever. The place they
lived being more based on the concept of makai, a demon world. Note
that law and chaos have both a sky / earth motif going on as well as
a heaven / hell one. Which implicitly relates the idea of hell to the
power of the earth. Which is why games like SJ show it in terms of
lava flow. Law also uses the term hell to refer to punishment, even
if not meant as a literal place.

**Hermeticism** is an esoteric tradition based primarily upon
writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. It stems from the idea
that a hidden true theology exists in all religions that was given by
god to man in antiquity, and is a combination of the ideas of
astrology, alchemy, and magic, strongly influencing the later ideas
of these topics, and of esoteric traditions in general. Hermeticism was also heavily inspired by gnosticism, talking about humans undergoing reincarnations until their minds are freed from the world of matter to unite with the one. Though hermeticists did not see god as evil, but the trapping of man in matter as a kind of self imposed mistake of original man when man willingly chose to unite with it after its creation by god, not understanding its limitations.

Hermeticism comes up in II where hecate appears in her hermetic form working for chaos. It also shows up in strange journey where the boss ouroborous is described as a hermetic symbol, and talks about some hermetic concepts. Ouroborous refers to humans as prisoners of matter and as trapped souls. It also presents itself as a symbol of infinity and infinite potential, in keeping with esoteric ideas on enlightenment. Hermeticism was also an influence on the kabbalah, especially among those who rejected aristotelian rationalism in favor of a mysticism based form of understanding, and ultimately generated its own form of it called hermetic qabalah. Hermetic qabalah is the form of kabbalah that was absorbed into occult teachings, later becoming the inspiration for crowley and satanism. And so that element of spiritual liberation is present due to chaos' strong association with hermetic qabalah. In persona there is also a persona named trismegistus, named after hermes. And the games mention alchemy in general, often tying it to demon fusion, which obviously has strong ties to hermeticism.

**Hermetic Qabalah** is the form of kabbalah developed by the hermetic order of the golden dawn. It mixes polytheistic elements into the kabbalah, as well as the idea of spiritual evolution. Chaos uses some kabbalic imagery, but mixed into a wholly non monotheistic aspect. And draws on this hermetic element.

**Immanence** refers to things that are within. Chaos focuses
on the idea of immanent divinity to contrast law's focus on the
transcendent divine order. This ties to how while law tends to personify the great will as a transcendent god whom it venerates, chaos tends to not venerate any totally external or transcendent conception of god, insttead seeing divinity as immanent and pluriform.

**Impermanence** refers to the focus on that all thigns are
temporary and change. The gaian temple in I loosely talks about
something that sounds like this. In buddhism, impernanence, called
**anicca** is one of the three marks of existence. It is also a
large aspect of hinduism.

**Invocation** is a term in paganism, shamanism, and some forms of satanism for deliberately drawing a spirit into one's own body. Crowley contrasts invocation, which is a drawing in of a spirit with evocation which is calling it to do something externally. This is seen as different from posession, because in invocation the spiritual force is not seen as antagonistic with the host. Invocation is a large part of the chaos side, with strange journey the question that leads you to the chaos lock being to be asked whether you would host a demon in your own body. The goal of many in the chaos faction is ultimately to invove a demonic force inside one's self to merge with, becoming part demon yourself.

**Imperial way buddhism**, or imperial way zen refers to the
radicalized form of buddhism that existed leading up to world war II
japan. It used the doctrine of karma to justify the modern social
darwinist policies that japan had at the time, as well as holding to
other forms of radicalization. It is a large basis for the chaos
side, especially considering the first arc of smti shows the chaos
side as an analogue of imperial japan. It is not a perfect match
however, with chaos ultimately ending more individualistic.

**Jiriki** (one's own strength) is the Japanese Buddhist term
for self power, the ability to achieve liberation or enlightenment
(in other words, to reach nirvana) through one's own efforts. It is
contrasted against **tariki**, the idea of outside help. The
former being associated with self enlightenment, and the latter with
the more salvationist forms of buddhism such as pure land. The idea
of self power understood in a buddhist light is a major facet of
chaos, though focused not merely on paranirvana, but life in reality
in general. Though the dharmic aspect of chaos interpreted in a self
reliant light had been there since the beginning, the most clear
declaration of this comes from maitreya in apocalypse who says to
wield the light of self and dharma, rather than support from others.

**Kama** is a term in hinduism and buddhism that refers to sensual desires. This referring not merely to sexual desires, but all tangible things in the world that one has desire for. It is sometimes personified as an actual deity, but more often is used to denote the abstract concept. While kama is a thing seen as a facet of life in hinduism, it is also seen as at times dangerous. Stating that if dharma is ignored, kama leads to social chaos. Non tantric Buddhism uses the term in a more negative sense also, renouncing the desires that bind you to the world.

One distinction in tantric practice however is a different approach to kama. A fundamental theory of Tantric practice is that of transformation. Negative mental factors such as desire,
hatred, greed, pride are not outright rejected as in non Tantric
Buddhism, but are used as part of the path. A french indologist stated that tantric doctrine is "an attempt to place kama, desire, in every meaning of the word, in the service of liberation." In the hevajra sutra it states "By passion the world is bound, by passion too it is released." And "one knowing the nature of poison can dispel poison with poison."

What this means is that contrary to the forms of buddhism that emphasize upekkha and calm, tantric practices emphasize kama, and releasing and utilizing your passions. In this sense it is a large basis of chaos, since as stated in iva, one of the core doctrines of chaos is that they should unleash their suppressed emotions upon the world in order to shape it in accordance with their will. And its basis in tantra makes it an extreme version of that idea. Chaos strongly empasizes the keyword desire too, highlighting this concept.

According to Buddhist Tantra there is no strict separation of the profane or *samsara* and the sacred or *nirvana*,↵ rather they exist in a continuum. All individuals are seen as
containing the seed of enlightenment within, which is covered over by defilements. Buddhahood is often not as something outside or an event in the future, but as immanently present and which your practice can manifest. And this ties to chaos' upholding of the dark aspects of reality as nondualistically connected to the divine as well.

**Karma**. In dharmic religions, karma refers to the future
consequences that result from the undertaking of deliberate actions.
While these consequences can manifest at any time, it is primarily
associated with your future births. In Buddhism, this is not seen as
the result of any form of divine judgement, but is merely the
spiritual aspect of cause and effect. Placing the ultimate
responsibility for your outcomes on you. One aspect of imperial way
buddhism was using the doctrine of karma to support social darwinist
attitudes, seeing disrupting it as disrupting a natural order. In
addition it justified its militarism as based on expansion of
influence and the need to protect the realm. And used buddhist
concepts of detachment to resign you to this being the nature of the
world.

Chaos is based heavily on dharmic religions, and especially the
version buddhism that appeared before world war II. One aspect of
this is that it considers its ideal of extreme social darwinism as
one in which due to a lack of protections, your outcome is based
entirely on your own strength and power, and sees this as a
manifestation of the idea of karma. And heavily associates good
action with you raising in the hierarchy. This is the basis behind
SMTI in which chaos first appears as an analogue of imperial japan
and its ideals, and takes on a heavily Buddhist character. Imperial
zen also placed the emperor as the primary object of worship over the
buddhas. Which ties a bit to chaos' nature as having a buddhist
aesthetic, but the warlord figure of lucifer is placed higher than
the buddhas. Note however that unlike imperial japan, chaos does not
think you should consider yourself absolutely subject to a state or
emperor, instead taking this line of thought more open ended.

Note that reincarnation exists in the games in general, so
something like karma exists in the series at large. But only chaos
upholds it as more of an explicit focus in a moral sense.

**Keisaku** is a term for a flat wooden stick or slat used in zen buddhism during periods of meditation to remedy sleepiness or lapses of concentration. They usually bear inscriptions along the sides. The head monk will often walk among the monks hitting those who are seen as lacking proper concentration. In megaten, yama is often seen holding one of these, and is a major figure on the chaos side. This likely ties to chaos' ruthless goals of training themselves and the fact that this ties to dangerous and often lethal tests. Notably, since it is a demon seen holding this it is not clear to what degree the human members use one literally.

**Kodoku** is a type of curse found in japanese folklore that is based on using the life force of insects to poison, control, or kill someone. The gaian temple in smti sells a kodokuzara as one of its primary items, which can be used to use an instant death spell on enemies.

**Kuji-kiri** or **the nine symbolic cuts** is an esoteric buddhist practice of hand movements and visualization of nine cuts being made through the world of ignorance using a symbolic sword of truth. The associated mantras are called the **Kuji-in**. Each cut has its own specific meaning. The symbol associated with this is seen being used by the chaos side in imagine.

**Kunitsukami** are the japanese gods of earth, which are said
to originate in japan, in contrast with the amatsukami who originate
in heaven. They are affiliated with the chaos side, with gaians seen
venerating them in II, and with the backstory of raidou I
highlighting a story of law versus chaos. And with okuninushi being a
chaotic deity story character in overclocked. This ties to the more
nature focused and animistic views of chaos.

**Law of thelema** is a term for the fundamental tenet
underlying Thelema. its definition is: "Do what thou wilt shall
be the whole of the Law". This does not however mean to just act
however you feel like minute to minute. It implies that in a mystical
sense everyone has a "true will" that is their idealized
self oriented self they should live up to. It isa path towards what
they truly desire, and how they truly want tolive. Uniting with your
true will was seen as uniting with the divine order of reality
itself.

However, this calling to fulfill yourown true will does not mean
that you are bound not to interfere withthe true will of others.
Crowley noted that people's wills wouldintersect. And openly derided
weakness, saying that people need notgive them leniency, but should
trample over them. But that if twostrong wills intersected then they
should fight for dominance asequals. Uniting with the order of
reality was seen as moving through it like a planet on its orbit,
which might crush other smaller ones in its way. Modern satanist
groups are all generally influenced by this law to one degree or
another, though they tend to drop the idea of the divine order.

Chaos is of course based heavily on thelema, and satanism in
general, with crowley as a major character on it, and strongly
emphasizes acting on your own will. In this sense, this and its
derivatives are the primary religious moral concept that chaos uses
as a basis. Though lucifer in iv refers to it as the law of power.
Like in thelema, chaos contrasts its individualism with the bigger
picture, saying that acting on your true will will be in tune with
nature, but that the upholding of nature results in the less fit
perishing.

**Left hand path**. In Western esotericism the Left-Hand Path
and Right-Hand Path are the dichotomy between two opposing approaches
to magic. Right hand path is seen as a definition for those magical
groups that follow specific ethical codes and adopt social
convention, while the Left-Hand Path adopts the opposite attitude,
espousing the breaking of taboo and the abandoning of set morality.
In strange journey jiminez has an attack called left hand, making it
an explicit association.

**Lords of flame** or **the seven holy kumaras** are a term in the ascended master teachings
for a group of spirits who are considered to be positive spirits who
came from venus to enlighten humanity in the distant past, but who
were seen by christians as lucifer and the fallen angels. One of
these beings is sanat kumara, who shows up on chaos as a
transcendental being for them who is fostering humanity to develop
their inner seeds of chaos so as to be able to fight back against the
dispensation of the universe. Christians have interpreted sanat kumara as the devil in disguise due to its associations with the planet venus (the morning star), and its name being an anagram of satan. But sanat kumara's presence shows theosophical references for more than just neutral.

Sanat kumara came to earth in theosophy because humanity had lost its spiritual nature, having become corrupt, and the spiritual hierararchies governing reality had considered that it would be necessary to end the world, and recycle its spiritual energy for a new one. But he offered instead to go to earth, becoming its spiritual flame to help foster spiritual growth. And was given permission to do this. In-game sanat kumara takes credit for the development of humanity, and talks about war against the dispensation of the universe, which is associated with ancient of days. So aspects of this story are told not as a unified process, but as part of a cosmic war between two forces.

**Lotus position**. Padmasana or Lotus Position is a
cross-legged sitting position originating in meditative practices of
ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. It
is an ancient asana, commonly used for meditation, in the Yoga,
Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist contemplative traditions. A few chaotic
figures like the dark priest are see sitting in this meditative
position.

**Luciferianism** is a belief system that venerates the
essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer. The tradition,
influenced by Gnosticism, usually reveres Lucifer not as the devil,
but as a liberator, a guardian or guiding spirit. This is often
viewed interchangeably with other similar figures like the Greek
titan Prometheus. While chaos is more explicitly satanic in tone, it
occasionally has more positive implicated luciferian elements as well
as emphasis on viewing lucifer as a prometheus-like figure.

**Makai** is a term from shinto that refers to a demon world
where wicked souls go to become demons such as oni. This is usually the term
used for the primary demon world, and they generally do not refer to it as
hell.

**Maltheism** or **Misotheism** is thebelief that a god is
either fully evil, or has evil in such a widescale that from a human
perspective it can be seen as whollydetrimental. Chaos' view of yhvh
tends to focus on his existence as an evil being.

**Mantra**. A mantra is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound,
or group of words in Sanskrit believed by practitioners to have
psychological and spiritual powers. Mantra meditation helps to induce
an altered state of consciousness. A mantra may or may not have a
syntactic structure or literal meaning. While mantras may be
associated with any of the sides, chaos has the strongest affiliation
with it, since they carry mantra beads, have a dharmic tone, are
associated with the om, and in nocturne the early game chaos demons
are called the mantra. The chaotic unit called dark priest is said to be a master of the shingon esoteric mantra.

**Mara** is the demon that tried to keep buddha from
enlightenment by tempting him with sensual pleasures. In buddhism he
is the equivalent of the devil figure, who has great (though
indirect) power over the lower realms, tempting people to keep them
from practice. Early buddhism had both a literal and psychological
interpretation of mara. Despite also being a literal being, it was
also seen as the force of desire in general, keeping you from
enlightenment. His appearance as a penis comes from the fact that
early japanese monks used the term as a synonym for penis in
reference to temptations for physical indulgence.

Mara being a literal being on the chaos side likely presumes him
as a concept used by them also. Notably, similar to how satanists
talk about how things deemed sins by christians are actually
liberating, this use of mara depicted as a positive by them
implicates this interpretation of human desires as a thing to foster
rather than avoid. Interestingly, both positive and negative buddhist
figures lean to chaos. Which shows them accepting a dual faceted
understanding of different possible outcomes.

**Maranasati** (literally death awareness or mindfulness of death) is a Buddhist meditation practice that uses various visualization and contemplation techniques to meditate on the nature of death. These meditations are said to be conducive both to understanding the cycle of death and rebirth, as well as being conducive to right effort. Buddhist temples that practice death meditation will often have a human skeleton on display for use as a symbol. The gaians meditate on death in order to provide context that in their view only the more fit should survive according to nature. So they train themselves to be even willing to accept their own death should they prove unfit.

**Maya** is a fundamental concept in Hindu philosophy, notably
in the Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedanta. Maya is the force that creates the cosmic illusion that
the phenomenal world is real. For the Nondualists, maya is thus that
cosmic force that presents the infinite *brahman* (the supreme
being) as the finite phenomenal world. Though for dualists, it also has an aspect in that the phenomenal world has a sense of reality of its own. Maya is not presented as exclusively a bad thing however, but as something to overcome. Originally it simply was a term for gods showing you illusions.

In strange journey maya is presented as a literal goddess, but
also as one who uses the force of illusion. Her description says that
it is the power to make humans aware and become enlightened about
"phenomena" caused by things on earth. And in-game she
refers to entering human consciousness to bring forth their
prosperity. As such, this implies a chaotic understanding which is an
inversion of dharmic religion that focuses on the worldly. Saying
that it is tied to the force which allows people to imagine self
identity, and to thus live as individuals. While noting that
individuals aren't a discrete absolute truth of the world. In
apocalypse, krishna when dying said that you were supposed to be only
an illusion. Referencing the hindu concept of maya.

**Mem aleph**. In certain modern new age beliefs, the name mem aleph is associated with the universal divine feminine. To chaos, they see it as a primal mother goddess.

**Mem, shin and aleph** are called the three mother letters of
creation, and are associated with air water and fire, as well as
space, time, and soul. They are seen as emanations of the ein sof that
correspond to the building blocks of the world and the primal chaos of
original creation. They are also associated with the three top
sephirot, and also the three pillars that correspond to the tree of
life as a whole. The fact that they are associated with the elements
of the world ties to the gaia aspect. In megaten they never mention
this as an abstract concept however, instead depicting it as a
literal entity. Notably, in kabbalah the primal chaos is meant to be
rectified into a world of order, but chaos sees this state as the
goal in and of itself.

**Mikkyo** is a term for the specific collection of esoteric practices that are found in the tantric buddhist traditions. Which are of course a large facet of chaos.

**Monks** are people who practice religious asceticism by
monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. They
live a contemplative life apart from the world, usually under vows of
poverty and chastity. While all sides seem to have some monks, they
are more notable for law and chaos. In chaos, there are not only
monks involved with the church but many of the units who are out
fighting are presented as a type of monk, ranging from fallen monk,
Kamen-Hijiri, and the fuke zen monks in imagine. Since the
description for fallen monk says that gaian monks are encouraged to
break their precepts this implies that many of them use monk as more
of a title for training than necessarily a true statement of seeking
to live divorced from the world.

**Mother goddess**. A mother goddess is a goddess who
represents, or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility,
creation, destruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When
equated with the Earth or the natural world, such goddesses are
sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. Chaos
considers mother godesses an important facet of producing demons and
fostering the earth. And the head of them all is mem aleph, who is an
analogy to mother earth. She is contrasted against yhvh, who is seen
as a sky father. While other alignments do have mother goddesses as
well, chaos has the largest focus on them.

**Mudra**. A mudra is a symbolic or ritual gesture that can
have different meanings in in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some
mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and
fingers. Pictures of buddhist deities are often depicted in a mudra
pose with their hands. In esoteric buddhism, these are often seen as symbolically identifying the pracitioner with the universe. Various figures on the chaos sided are seen
doing mudras, such as dark priest, virochana or maitreya.

**Muscular religion** began in the mid 1800s with muscular
christianity, which promoted an explicit union between religious
values, and fitness, aggression, discipline, sacrifice for the nature
of the ingroup, and a dislike of sterile intellectualism, seeing it
as divorced from everyday life. It came from late 1700s writings that
advocated for fitness as not merely conducive to physical, but also
moral health. Seeing it as leading to an aggressive mentality and
ability to protect your ingroup from outside groups. While muscular
relgion is mostly associated with abrahamic religions, chaos does
embody parts of its aspects.

**Neopaganism** is a collective term for new religious
movements influenced by or derived from the various historical pagan
beliefs of pre-modern Europe, North Africa and the Near East. These
terms can either be reconstructive or eclectic. While every side has
an element of incorporating pagan gods into it, chaos has the most
overt tone of restoring the old gods to their positions of original
power as distinct gods over humanity. In contrast, law seeks a place
for them in a more pluriform monotheistic context, and neutral while
giving them respect ultimately focuses more on human exemplars. In apocalypse, metatron also refers to you as **heathans** for going against yhvh.

**Nephilim** refers to the offspring of a human and a fallen
angel. Although not called one by name, hallelujah in apocalypse is
one of these, having semyaza as a parent, who in the dead sea scrolls
was one of the fathers of the nephilim. Although not strictly
speaking an exclusively chaotic context, deliberately reproducing
with humans is seen as more chaos leaning, and not something that
angels are generally depicted as doing.

**Night of pan** is the term used in thelema for the state of ego death experienced during the process of crossing of the abyss. Here pan is used in the dual meanings of the greek god and the word for all. Thelema of course being a large facet of chaos. This encompasses the idea of a self oriented union with the all, seeing it as like a planet on its orbit doing it's own thing as part of nature. Similar to how many on chaos take this bigger picture perspective.

**Noble eightfold path** refers to the buddhist path towards
enlightenment. It consists of eight practices: right view, right
resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort,
right mindfulness, and right focus. The buddhist symbol of the wheel
represents it, having eight spokes. Many chaotic figures are seen
using this symbol, and so presumably hold to the idea of the
eightfold path. However, due to the nature of chaos' ethics it is
likely adjusted based on their goals. What form it takes for them
being left ambiguous. Note that while many chaos figures believe in a dog eat dog world, some seek to uphold a more benighted perspective within the chaos.

**Occultism**. The occult is "knowledge of the hidden"
or "knowledge of the paranormal", as opposed to facts and
"knowledge of the measurable", usually referred to as
science. The term is sometimes taken to mean knowledge that "is
meant only for certain people" or that "must be kept
hidden", but for most practicing occultists it is simply the
study of a deeper spiritual reality that extends pure reason and the
physical sciences. It is closely related to the idea of the esoteric,
but with a darker implication that implies it may be a dangerous
activity. Since chaos is focused on hidden practices only the
superior will succeed with it has a tone of such. Occultism as a distinct darker form of esotericism formulated in the 1800s, and one major distinction was that unlike earlier forms it did not reject modernity, but sought to mix it with spiritualism. It also tended to be more explicitly anti christian, which earlier forms of esotericism were not. Often drawing instead on pagan or eastern beliefs.

**Ofuda**. In both shinto and japanese buddhism ofuda is a talisman made out of paper or wood seen as imbued with the power of deities. They are used for various purposes such as protection or exorcism. While used by more law units, the chaos unit onmyoji is seen using them, and has a historical relationship with them. And some light chaos gods have them.

**Om** also written as 'Aum', is the most sacred syllable,
symbol, or mantra in Hinduism, that signifies the essence of the
ultimate reality, brahman, consciousness or Atman. The Om sound is
the primordial sound, and is called the Shabda-Brahman (Brahman as
sound). It is a syllable that is chanted either independently or
before a mantra. It is also found in sikhisn or tantric buddhism, where it has a similar meaning, implying the totality of existence. The gaians use the tantric buddhist seed syllable version of the om as a symbol.

**Onmyodo** ('The Way of Yin and Yang') is a traditional
Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and
occultism. It is based on the Chinese philosophies of Wu Xing (five
elements) and yin and yang, introduced into Japan at the beginning of
the 6th century. It was accepted as a practical system of divination.
These practices were influenced further by Taoism, Buddhism and
Shintoism, and evolved into the system of onmyōdō around the late
7th century. A practicer of onmyodo is called an **onmyoji**.

Onmyōji were specialists in magic and divination. Their court
responsibilities ranged from tasks such as keeping track of the
calendar, to mystical duties such as divination and protection of the
capital from evil spirits. They could divine auspicious or harmful
influences in the earth, and were instrumental in the moving of
capitals. It is said that an onmyōji could also summon and control
shikigami. In SMTII one of the gaian units is called onmyoji. Showing
this as an aspect of their side.

**Paranirvana**. is commonly used to refer to
nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of the body of
someone who has attained nirvana during his or her lifetime. It
implies a release from the Saṃsāra, karma and rebirth as well as
the dissolution of the skandhas, ceasing to exist as a distinct
being. While most chaotic figures are not seeking this goal, instead
inverting dharmic practice to being life affirming, some do seem to
still seek it, seeking to destroy their soul, becoming part of the
energy of reality itself. Mem aleph rests in the paranirvana pose,
and later dissolves into the world, which is a deliberate
association. Maitreya describes it as a state which is neither life
nor death. Which is in keeping with buddhist understandings.

**Prajna** in buddhism is insight into the true nature of reality. It can be translated as higher knowledge or understanding. It is similar to the western concept of gnosis, One major aspect of this being the ability to finally see the dharma, and karma for yourself, rather than merely to have faith in it. The zen equivalent term is **satori**. While the emphasis placed on knowledge by the side of chaos is presented in a more western gnostic tone, the buddhist elements tie to its emphasis and focus on obtaining knowledge.

**Prosperity theology** is a religious belief among some Christians, who hold that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, and proper religious practice will increase one's material wealth. It has been criticized by many christians as against the spirit of christianity. While chaos does not view wealth as coming from an external source, it considers proper practice to be something that will allow you to manifest your will and achieve your aims, and as this egoistic fulfilment to be a goal of its spirituality rather than something in conflict with it.

**Punna** is the buddhist term for merit. Merits are the beneficial outcomes that stem from positive karma. While the goal of buddhism is not seeking good merits, but rather liberation, merit seeking is considered an earlier path to seek, due to positive karma helping one to avoid suffering, and some forms helping begin the path to liberation. Chaos, due to seeing itself as a meritocracy who views it as a result of karma is obviously closely connected to this concept, though it makes it a central focus in and of itself, and views merit differently and more tied to skills and strength rather than morality.

**Qabbalah** refers to kabbalic teachings reinterpreted in a
hermetic or satanic light. In contrast to normal understandings of
the kabbalah which emphasized the light side (though many say that
good and evil are aspects of the same coin), satanic kabbalah tends
to emphasize the dark side more, as well as interaction with the
qliphoth. Satanic kabbalah emphasizes that though the light side
often monopolizes claims to divinity, that the dark side is likewise
true emanations of the infinite and has claim to divinity also. Hermetic qabalah also tends to view the godhead not a monotheistic light, but more as a source of reality, seeing divinity more as immanent within reality. The
chaos side has a tone heavily influenced by satanic kabbalah and
thelema.

**Sabbath**. The Witches' Sabbath is a term applied to a
gathering of those considered to practice witchcraft and other rites.
What exactly they are implied to involve is left rather vague, due to
the idea seemingly being a modern invention, and one appropriated by
various groups to describe either their, or others' purported
activities. Normally the implications involve some type of black
magic, and occasionally sex magic. In SMTIV there are sabbaths in the
woods involving black magic that awakens demon power in individuals.
And in II crowley mentions ones that are implied to involve sex
magic.

**Satanism** is a group of ideological and philosophical
beliefs based on Satan. Specifically embracing the dark and demonic,
these groups tend to have an element of social darwinism and elitism.
They come in theistic and nontheistic variants. The goal of satanism
is not necessarily worshiping satan per say, so much as worshiping
yourself, and rejecting any authority over you other than that of
power. The chaos side obviously has a large basis in satanist groups.

**Satori** is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, or sudden insight / comprehension. It is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. In zen the term is used for seeing one's true nature. It is seen as the first step towards buddhahood, but the term is not generally used for full liberation. In IV, belial uses the root satoru to describe an epiphany he had in ancient times about the nature of chaos. In english it is translated as reaching **enlightenment**.

The idea of sudden intuitive comprehension outside the bounds of logical reasoning is an aspect of chaos in general. In the chaos ending of strange journey, if you talk to the scientists they talk about how logic isn't in the way anymore, and they just percieve directly. This emphasis on direct insight over logic was more common in zen even than other forms of buddhism, and led to accusations of being anti intellectual.

**Seed syllables**. In Vajrayana Buddhism and Hinduism, the term **bija** is used for mystical "seed syllables" contained within mantras. These seeds do not have precise meanings, but are thought to carry connections to spiritual principles. The best-known *bija* syllable is Om, first found in the Hindu scriptures the Upanishads. In some tantric traditions they are seen as aniconic representations of the matrika godesses. Chaos is seen using the vajrayana version of om as its main symbol on a banner in smti, and its main logo on its uniforms seems to be the chandrabindu, which shows up as part of the om. The seed syllables are also seen in death skills, which are associated mainly with chaos. And so there is an underlying element of their use.

**Shaolin Kung Fu** is one of the oldest, largest, and most famous styles of wushu or kungfu. It combines Zen Buddhism and martial arts, often being practiced by monastics as a type of meditation. For chaos, this blending of zen principles with martial arts is a major factor of its practice because it sees developing strength as in and of itself a religous duty. Many of the chaotic units are themselves dressed as buddhist monks, to show its merging of the zen monastic practice with its warrior spirit.

**Shamanistic nietzsche** is a concept
developed by nick land and bataille that reads the works of nietzsche
in a neo-shamanistic lens. Classical shamanism tended to revolve
around unorganized contact with, or spiritual travel to a spiritual
world by breaking out of the mundane. This would often be associated
with a concept of spiritual transformation. Neo shamanism is seen as
taking a similar approach, but in a naturalistic or psychological
lens. Here it is more like an unorganized process of transformation,
facilitated by breaking through the regular world, which is
ultimately revealed to be an image structured by society's standards,
the superego, and the conscious mind, and into a more unmediated
level of reality.

This has to do with the concept of the
life-world, which says that the world as perceived by you is largely
a construct, not only in the direct senses you perceive, but in the
perception and meaning placed on it by your conscious. Land argues
that the neo shamanistic approach is not altogether different from
the classical one, and that the classical one was undergoing a
similar process of spiritual transformation by breaking through the
life world. This breaking through does not place you in contact with
any kind of absolute truth, due to the perspectvist stance being
taken. Like nietzsche, land rejects any kind of noumenon as a basis
of truth, calling it a holdout of theistic metaphysics that relates
to an idea of finding absolute truth. Land says it is not about
propositions to judge, but paths to explore.

In terms of megaten, the
supernaturalist takes and naturalist ones blur together due to the
psychological approach taken. But the chaos side does have practices
that involve taking nietzschean stances in a shamanistic direction.

**Shamanism** is a term for religious practices, especially indigenous or non-organized ones, that involve a special figure who will undergo some form of altered mental state in order to communicate with spirits. While shamanism is a common facet of early or indigenous religions, it tends to be relatively rarer in later more developed ones. For instance, while shamanism is a facet of shinto, it became relatively rare over time. In place of the law religion having a more priestly format, chaos has tones of shamanism at times and direct unorganized communion with spirits.

**Shingon** is a form of esoteric vajrayana buddhism primarily focused on Japan. The gaian temples explicitly look like shingon temples and they are said to use shingon magic practices. Implying it as one of the primary inspirations their traditions are derived from. Note that neutral and even law also have some vajrayana imagery.

**Shinto shrine**. A shinto shrine or **jinja** is a
structure whose main purpose is to house one or more kami. While
primarily associated with neutral, chaos has elements of shinto as
well, using a shinto gate once in smti, and in their main base in
imagine. Their temples while looking primarily buddhist also have
shinto elements in them, in keeping with the fact that in historical
japan these things would tend to overlap. One chaotic character in
smti is even seen conducting a ritual involving some **miko**
shrine maidens. Notably, while the amatsukami are law aligned, and
originate from heaven, the kunitsukami are chaos and originate from
japan. And chaos associates more explicitly with the gods of earth.

**Sex magic** is any type of sexual activity used in magical,
ritualistic or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One
practice of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal or orgasm
with visualization of a desired result. A premise posited by sex
magicians is the concept that sexual energy is a potent force that
can be harnessed to transcend one's normally perceived reality. In Iv
you see crowley in infernal tokyo using sex magic to summon mother
harlot. Sex magic also overlaps with tantric sex, which may also be a
thing chaos does, especially considering its yab-yum statues. The term for tantric sexual rituals in particular is **Karmamudra**.

**Shakti** is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the
dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe
in Hinduism and Shaktism. Shakti is the concept or personification of
divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as "The
Great Divine Mother" in Hinduism. Hindus believe that Shakti is
both responsible for creation and the agent of all change. Shakti is
cosmic existence as well as liberation. While mem aleph is referred
to with hebrew letters, like yhvh it is also a composite figure of
many religious figures. Its appearance is hindu and buddhist in tone,
and its nature calls to mind a primordial feminine energy. This being
not just a being, but a force she can sacrifice her body to imbue the
cosmic eggs with.

**Sheol**, in the Hebrew Bible, is a place of darkness to which
all the dead go, both the righteous and the unrighteous, regardless
of the moral choices made in life, a place of stillness and darkness
cut off from life and from God. The inhabitants of sheol are called
"shades" (rephaim) and are thought to lack strength or a
personal life. This belief was not uniform in the old testament, but
was a common one. Showing that concepts of the division of heaven and
hell were not common at this point in time. In majin tensei ii, sheol
is the name of one of the core parts of the underworld. This name
being a more neutral one for such a place shows a more benign
understanding of its place in the overall system.

**Siddhi** is a tern in buddhism and hinduism for spiritual, supernatural, or otherwise magical powers. These powers are the products of spiritual
advancement through practices such as meditation and yoga. While buddhism often emphasizes that while one might obtain these powers that they should not be the focus of your practice, chaos inverts this, making the deliberate cultivation and use of these powers a basis of why the practice is done. This heavily tying to their emphasis on cultivating strength. Certain units such as dark priest are said in their description to have obtained powers such as this via shingon esoteric tantra. A comparable term is **rddhi** in some othe forms of buddhism.

**Spiritual ecology** is an emerging field in religion,
conservation, and academia recognizing that there is a spiritual
facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and
earth stewardship. The term for its theological approach is
ecotheology, which is is a form of constructive theology that focuses
on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the
light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from
the premise that a relationship exists between human
religious/spiritual worldviews and the degradation of nature. It
explores the interaction between ecological values, such as
sustainability, and the human domination of nature. The movement has
produced numerous religious-environmental projects around the world.
Chaos' religion obviously heavily focuses on people's place in
nature, and relationship to it, so this approach is an element of
their beliefs.

Spiritual ecology identifies the Scientific Revolution that began
in the 16th century as the beginning of a shift in the human
mentality away from seeing the world in a spiritual light and more
towards seeing it as a pool of resources that can be used without
limit. Some in Spiritual Ecology also argue that a monotheistic
religious orientation towards a transcendent divinity, is largely
responsible for destructive attitudes about the earth, and sacred
nature of creation. Thus, many identify the wisdom of indigenous
cultures, for whom the physical world is still regarded as sacred, as
holding a key to solving ecological issues.

**Spiritual materialism** is a term for the grasping after material accomplishment within the context of spiritual pursuit. Either thinking that spiritual accomplishment will bring you intense material benefits, or that said benefits are for the aid of spirituality. While it is often rejected as a greed focused approach by many spiritual traditions, chaos seems to have elements of this at times, with a focus on wealth and indulgence for the accoplished.

**Spontaneity**. Although naturalness / spontaneity is
associated more with taoism than buddhism, chaos is based heavily on
Japanese zen buddhism, which was the form most influenced by taoism.
Naturalness is a big aspect of zen as well, and is a heavy
inspiration for chaos, being part of the eastern veneer chaos was
descibed as having in an interview. Taoist / zen ideas of spontaneity
are about actingwithout pretention or the need for reflection, and
being more true to your natureas well as nature itself. And while
taoists interpreted this in aharmonious way in tune with the tao,
chaos likely draws inspirationfrom this as well.

Chaos seeks to embody in some sense thestate of nature, and to
live spontaneously and without inhibitionlike animals do. They talk
about unleashing their repressed emotionsto act naturally, seeing
this as the true state of the natural world.Notably taoism looked to
animals as well to get an idea ofspontaneity. Note of course that
chaos' views on this are notexclusively influenced by taoism, but
also more aggressiveideologies. Since taoism was about living in tune
with nature, ofteneven as a solitary being rather than with human
society likeconfucianism, it can be more of a source of inspiration
for chaos'individualist ethics. Though note that total individualism
was a rareidea in the far east. Note that chaos in-game too also
talks about living in tune with the larger nature despite this
individualist slant. Seeing those as continuous ideas.

Note that chaos is specifically inspired by zen buddhism in its
militarized form that was used in support of the axis powers in world
war II. And so these things are also being interpreted in a light of
implied violence and ingroup logic. Being part of the veneer of a
warrior.

**Stratification** is a religious term in laveyan satanism that highlights their claim that the concept of equality supports the weak at the expense of the strong, and that things must be able to settle to their own level. It is a mixture of their orientations on freedom and social darwinism. Gaians of course have this aspect also, tying it to living a natural life where like in nature you were required to survive by your own capability.

**Tantra** refers to the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and
Buddhism that co-developed in the first century. It tends to denote a
mystical focus on the microcosm and macrocosm, and focus more on
intense ritualism than ideology. And has an association of self
mastery, and becoming one's own master. Yab yum is a common tantric
image, and many major chaotic demons are tantric in nature, giving
chaos as a whole a recurring tantric association. With yab yum being
a focus of many of the statues in SJs chaos ending. Tantric buddhism is known as **vajrayana**, and in smti the dark priest is said to be a master of shingon practices, which is one of the surviving vajrayana schools. Like chaos, tantra practice tends to emphasize unleashing your emotions, utilizing them for spiritual ends.

**The Golden Age** in greek mythology was the period of time
during which the world was controlled by Cronus after the war of the
titans with their father Ouranos. Cronos had named it such, since
relative peace enveloped the world, and mankind was happy. In
reality, mankind was ignorant, and subject to the Titans' wills, and
Cronos had absolute control over the Earth. This age ended with the
start of the Great War between Titans and Gods. Certain chaos figures
like echidna use this as a motif in a greek context to talk about
when humans lived in tune with the chaotic nature gods in the far
past, and to explain what connection they seek to restore. Although
it is not a common motif.

**The seven earths** are a mystical jewish concept relating to seven earths visited by Adam. Though these earths are described more like underworlds. In majin tensei ii, the demon world's areas are named after the seven earths.

**The simile of the chariot** is a buddhist metaphor that shows up in various versions in buddhist literature. It uses the idea of a chariot as a metaphor for the illusion of self. Many spiritual teachings use the idea of a chariot as a metaphor for the self, such as plato. And this ties to it being a one person vehicle you must steer around. But buddhism adds to this the idea that the self is an illusion. Saying that upon further scrutiny it is a collection of pieces with no fundamental lasting essence of "chariot" within it.

Mara in the games shows up riding a chariot in reference to this idea. In buddhism, the chariot is associated with the view of self, and so also is mara. Note that this provides an interesting inversion in that while buddhism depicts the self as a construct to be overcome, chaos' use of mara depicts it as something to embrace. Inverting the meaning of dharmic practice. A later version of this inversion shows up later in strange journey, where the hindu idea of maya or illusion is depicted as a positive thing, and tied to humans developing self awareness.

**The World of Tohu, world of chaos** or **olam hatohu** is a kabbalic term for the primal world of chaos. This primal chaos was an inherent result of the naturally limited state of the divine light. and is tied to the concepts of chaos and reification, with it being something meant to be shifted to order over time. in megaten, mem aleph is associated with the primal mother letters of creation, tying the primal world of chaos to this concept. However, in inversion to the goal of shifting it to order, they see this as a state which should be preserved. Some satanic kabbalists even use the word tohu as a positive term.

**Titanomachy**. Many cultures have a creation myth in which a
group of younger, more civilized gods who represent the order of
civilization conquers and/or struggles against a group of older gods
who represent the forces of chaos (often also the forces of nature).
Named after the greek olympians taking power from the titans. Chaos
views its relation to the lawful gods like this, with them being ones
who usurped the more primal gods of nature. And they see this as a
mistake that needs to be reversed.

**Tohu** is the kabbalic term for chaos. While in original kabbalah the term was associated with a chaos that needs to be fixed, some satanic kabbalists appropriated it as a positive term. The concept of tohu is obviously relevant for contextualizing chaos, because they often use the word chaos as a religious sounding term, and are based on these concepts of kabbalic satanism that give it a kabbalic tone.

**True will** is a term from thelema that refers to your
mystical true will or ideal self. It is tied to the concept of the
law of thelema which says to act on your will. Chaos is based heavily
on the concept of the law of thelema, holding acting on your will as
of supreme importance. And so by extension their references to your
will is based on it.

**Upadana** is the Sanskrit and Pali word for "clinging",
"attachment" or "grasping", although the literal
meaning is "fuel". In buddhism the ultimate goal is to stop
clinging to all the things that bind you to the world so you can stop
being reborn. While some who align to chaos seek to cease being
reborn, for many it seems like a concept derived from this is
repurposed not to not enjoy the world, but rather to not hold to any
particular state. Chaos are neophiles who seek for change to be a
constant, and see a lawful mentality as one of seeking preservation
rather than dynamic change.

**Vamacara** is a hindu term meaning left handed attainment. It
is contrasted against the term daksiṇacara, which means right
handed attainment. And is the term from which the modern occultist
terms left hand path and right hand path derive. Vamacara is used to
describe a particular mode of worship or spiritual practice that is
not only "heterodox" to standard Vedic injunction, but
extreme in comparison to the status quo. Most often it is a form of
shaivism that upholds shiva as the ultimate.

One example of vamacara is the kapalikas or "skull men,"
who believed in indulgence and affirmation of things ordinarily
restricted as things which can help spiritual attainment. They often
engaged in rituals involving blood, and used skulls as a major
symbol. Later they evolved into groups known as the kaula. This can
be considered like an equivalent of a hindu conception of satanism,
embracing the material and demonic as part of spiritual evolution.
Notably, in hinduism even demons are said to worship shiva, since
shiva is an all encompassing force. This gives context for shiva's
role in chaos, as well as context for their dharmic depiction in
general, and association with tantric skull deities. Chaos resembles buddhist tantric aesthetics rather than hindu, but the contextualization of the left handed attainment is still present. kapalikas are considered the earliest examples of tantra, which is another thing chaos is associated heavily with.

**War in heaven**. The Book of Revelation describes a war in
heaven between angels led by the Archangel Michael against those led
by "the dragon", identified as the devil or Satan, who are
defeated and thrown down to the earth. Revelation's war in heaven is
related to the idea of fallen angels, as an explanation for the
origin of demons. Although chaotic spiritual entities actually
existed before then, the war in heaven is the moment when lucifer
rebelled taking many angels with him and was cast down. Lucifer was
the basis of when chaos became not merely a random collection of
gods, but a unified deliberate dialectical rebellion against order.

**Yab-yum** (Tibetan literally, "father-mother") is a
common tantric symbol in the Buddhist art of India, Bhutan, Nepal,
and Tibet. It represents the primordial union of wisdom and
compassion, depicted as a male deity in union with his female
consort. The male figure represents compassion and skillful means,
while the female partner represents insight. It shows up as a chaotic
symbol in strange journey's chaos endings.

**Yidam** is a type of deity associated with tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism said to be manifestations of Buddhahood or enlightened mind. During personal meditation practice, the yogi identifies their own form, attributes and mind with those of a yidam for the purpose of transformation. many chaotic figures such as dakini are yidams and the chaotic relationship to them seems to relate to this aspect of them. In IV you see a gaian transform into a dakini to fight you, which calls to mind this aspect of deity yoga.

**Witchcraft** or **witchery** broadly means the practice of
and belief in magical skills and abilities exercised by solitary
practitioners and groups. *Witchcraft* is a broad term that
varies culturally and societally, and thus can be difficult to define
with precision. While originally seen as a negative thing that
involved interacting with demons, later groups appropriated it as a
more positive concept. In IV, chaos seems to have an element of this,
with lilith being referred to as a witch, and with her conducting
witches' sabbaths in the woods.

## YHVH

This section contains the spiritual concepts more specifically
associated with yhvh. Especially when referring to corrupt versions
of yhvh who are distinct and have distinct goals from the law side.
Though notably, when yhvh is not corupt some of these tropes can also
apply to law, or at times even to neutral in cases where yhvh
supports it. Note also that some of these tropes only apply to nocturne, which has a very different tone from some other games.

**Adam kadmon** is the emanated body of god that pervades
reality, and is the form of all the sephirot together. In-game this
is the basis for understanding the relation between yhvh and the
great will, with yhvh presenting himself as the analogue of adam
kadmon, being the limited manifested body of the infinite. Though
notably, one distinction here is that in-game yhvh is not all
powerful, and can be destroyed. Whereas adam kadmon, despite being a
limited manifestation of god is not limited in power. In an interview atlus even states that adam kadmon is the form of yhvh in kabbalah

**Adibuddha** or **Primordial Buddha** in vajrayana has two different meanings. One is the idea of a primordial buddha, being the first to obtain buddhahood in a given world-cycle, from which other buddhas are sometimes then seen as in a way emanations of. And the other is a term for the abstract aspect of mind or buddhahood itself that never existed within samsara. Although it may look monotheist at first glance, buddhists stress not to see it as a monotheistic power, seeing the tangible buddhas as limited in time, even if manifestations of the dharmakaya. And it being more of a universal property than a creator force.

Despite obviously being the abrahamic god, yhvh in the games does have a slight association with buddhism, despite ironically the law side having close to no buddhist figures. In interviews they talk about how yhvh and satan are meant to be like composite figures of various religious entities. Yhvh is level 108, which is a number associated with buddhism, and satan looks like mahakala, which is a buddhist interpretation of shiva. And together they come off like a buddha and wrathful incarnation pair, which is common in buddhism. Satan's realization that god is not external, but is within followed by ultimately targeting yhvh is also a close parralel to buddhist teachings. So the idea of yhvh passing himself off as creator loosely can be viewed semi buddhist (though obviously this is a weak association).

**Audianism** is a term for a early christian belief that took literally the idea that god created mankind in his own image. Saying that god has a human form that mankind is based on. Something similar to this shows up in apocalypse, where yhvh is said to have literally the same face as adam.

**Cosmicism** is a religious perspective used to delineate the
view of h p lovecraft's works which view humanity as a relatively
insignificant existence in the cosmos, with the godly forces in them
if such exist apathetic to humanity. While not a major aspect of the
understanding of yhvh, in smtii alongside angels in the final area
was a collection of lovecraftian beings. Implying to some degree that
a world focused around god rather than humanity has a sense of cosmic
indifference. Notably this is not a perfectly accurate interpretation
of cosmicism, because yhvh in the games when corrupt is still
interested in humanity following him, whereas lovecraftian beings
generally don't care about humanity.

**Covenant**. A covenant is a formal agreement between two
parties seen as being watched over by divine mandate. The idea of the
covenant shows up in the bible both as a promise of god's presence for
the Israelites, as well as is an interpretation of the sacrifice of
jesus and promise of the world to come.

In iva, the covenant is used to describe an agreement by yhvh that
in exchange for faith and compliance he will bless people with his
presence, being with people in their times of both suffering and joy.
(And presumably also involving him bringing his followers to heaven
after death) This covenant is decried as empty, and lacking much
substantive meaning, due to his presence without doing anything not
carrying much weight. An additional aspect is him willingly forgiving
those who ask for forgiveness. The people on the law side in iva
originally believed that the lawful world was part of this, but
krishna points out that a permanent lawful world was never part of
yhvh's plan, and that he deliberately empowers lucifer to offset it.

**Creationism** is the religious belief that the universe or life originated "from specific acts of divine creation." While in the more narrow sense the term can imply rejection of evolution, it can also be used to mean that the universe in general was created, even if evolution exists. The latter of which is known as **evolutionary creationism**. In various games the universe is implied to have been created by yhvh to some degree, though different games diverge on whether humans were specifically created or evolved. Note that not every universe in the multiverse has to be created. They can also emerge randomly.

**Demiurge**. In gnosticism, the demiurge is generally seen as a false god who created the physical world that exists below the spiritual world fo the pleroma. In ignorance, he beleived himself as the true creator due to not having any knowledge of the higher spiritual world. Different forms of gnosticism differ on whether he was evil, or merely ignorant. In sethian gnosticism he is evil, and is a devil like figure. Whereas in valentinianism he is depicted as imperfect, but not evil. In valentinianism, after hearing of the pleroma from jesus, he wore to work in service of it, and protects the world from demons despite being ain imperfect being. and rules over the lower heavens of those who are not fully enlightened. The concept of the demiurge comes from plato, where he was a good figure behind the creation of the world. It also shows up in neoplatonism, from which it influenced the kabbalah.

In megaten, yhvh when corrupt is depicted as a demiurge figure who acts like he is an absolute being. Being directly equated to the demiurge in multiple games. He is often depicted as the creator of the universe that the games take place in, though it is noted that worlds existed before him, and so this does not make him absolute in the way he presents himself. In at least one game, angels are also referred to as archons, though noticably the angels also turn against him too regardless.

**Deus absconditus** is a term for the hidden god, who in their remoteness seems to ignore human suffering, or to not have enough presence to inherently warrant faith in them. It is a similar term to deus otiosus. Lucifer highlights this hidden aspect of god, saying that no matter how loyal you are to god, he will never answer. In contrast to christianity's claims that yhvh inervenes in the world often, in megaten he is seen as hidden in a much wiider scope sense, having very little direct interaction with it.

**Deus otiosus** is a term for a creator god who resigns from interaction with the world and largely allows its functioning to be done by other beings. In many polytheistic systems, the gods who are followed are distinct beings from the ones who were the ultimate origin of reality. Christianity notably avoids this by considering god still active in the world. However, megaten has aspects of this. Yhvh, despite being followed and worshipped is often depicted as taking no or few actions in the world directly, leaving such to lesser beings. He is not even physically present in the heaven that people tend to go to after death, existing in a seperate heaven where few see him personally. His actions in the world are normally done through a series of avatars who are depicted as independent beings with their own wills. Deus otiosus is also a large facet of deism, where god is seen as leaving the word to run on its own.

**Divine command theory** (also known as **theological** **voluntarism)** is a meta-ethical theorywhich proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is
commanded by God. Note that this does not tell you what the content
will be, merely from where it is derived. Yhvh in at least II and iva
seems to explicitly believe that his commands are themselves
normatively binding. For instance, in II on neutral, he directly
refers to aleph as committing sins by violating his divine will many
times. And he refers to questioning him as the same as questioning
reality. As well as on law acting as if the act of satan judging him
is inherently incoherent.

This is given some context by the fact that yhvh seems to consider
himself the reflection and embodiment of the absolute. And so as the
god of this absolute nature, he considers himself the one who makes
the infallible decrees from infinity that must be followed. While real
divine command theory is based on god being literally absolute, in
megaten it is based on him thinking he is the avatar of the absolute
in a particular way. Because while he is not necessarily a
true monotheistic god in game, he is the embodiment and representation
of such an idea.

Divine command theory does not necessarily imply that the commands
can be arbitrary. Since some forms to try to avoid this posit that
god does not consult some independent Platonic realm where the
objective principles of goodness exist, but rather god just acts
according to his necessarily good character, and so is the standard of
goodness. But many ethicists question whether this constitutes a
standard of objectivity.

As for what his particular commands tend to be in game, little is
made of them, and they are not elucidated much in game, aside from a
few cases such as him noting that the way aleph was created violates
them. They appear to be law leaning when they are hinted at at all,
but the specific creation of a world of law is not generally an
explicit part of them, being something he is not always for, or
considers something to be held back until he considers it time. If
they are meant to resemble what comes from divine command theory, they
would resemble deontological commands that are absolute (though
christianity tends to interpret it more as virtue ethical). In game
they are noted to be restrictive (in the games where he is corrupt),
but lack the kind of utilitarian benefit associated with the law
routes themselves.

**Divine countenance** is a term that refers to the face of god.
Seeing this is known as the **beatific vision**.
Monotheistic religions have different views. Some imply that the true
nature of god is impossible to see, even by spirits, and so he can
only be seen indirectly or by vision. Some others like christianity
hold that upon seeing the divine countenance evil would no longer be
possible for you, due to seeing its perfection.

In the games, it implicates that yhvh is only very rarely
seen,even by angels, and only some of the highest beings ever see
him directly. in SMTII on law, aleph is presented as if he is being
given a great reward for getting a chance to see him. and in
apocalypse itis stated that no human has ever seen him in this
universe. However, despite the games implying that even for those who
can see spirits that the highest ones might be hard to see (in IV you
can't see ancient of days at first, and in strange journey you can't
see mem aleph), there is otherwise little significance placed on it
aside from it being seen as a high honor. This also of course having
to do with the fact that yhvh himself is not the true godhead.

**Dominion theology** (also known as **dominionism**) is a christian theology that says that they should seek to transform their society on a political level to be in tune with their understanding of religious precepts. Corrupt versions of yhvh tend to strictly enforce this.

**Eternal conscious torment** refers to the christian view of
hell in which unrepentant sinners are sent to hell forever. In a few
cases yhvh refers to giving people eternal punishment for extra
grievous sins. But notably he is only ever seen saying this about
those who target him personally. The act of sending someone to such
an outcome is known as **eternal damnation**. Note that even when he threatens this, in practice it does not seem to be this bad.

**Eutheism** is the belief that a deity is wholly benevolent,
usually also including the idea that itis so knowledgeable (if not
omniscient) that listening to what it has to say, assuming you know,
should be done without question. In the case of yhvh, corrupt
versions of him see themselves as this, and as an all-good source.

**God the Father** is a title given to God in various
religions, most prominently in Christianity. In mainstream
trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first
person of the Trinity, followed by the second person God the Son
(Jesus Christ) and the third person God the Holy Spirit. Muslims and
jews are not trinitarians however, seeing god as merely the father.
In megaten, yhvh as the father is not presented in a trinitarian
light. Some angels refer to him as the "great father."

**Justification by faith** is a concept in certain strains
ofchristian theology that implies that a core concept of
being considered just in the eyes of god is to have faith in jesus,
such that the righteousness of him is considered implicitly
transferred to you. Since the righteousness is external, it is also
referred to as **imputed righteousness**. In megaten, when corrupt
yhvh treats belief in him as an independent good, saying in iva “I
offer myhand to any and all who believe In me. Have faith and you
shall receive my blessing.” To which asahi replies along the lines
of“ You judge people's worth by how much they believe in you.
Obey you. What are we to you? Are we really worthless if we dont
have value to you?” Here he is placing moral value in the act of
belief in him itself.

It should be noted that yhvh doesn't seem to exclusively be
acting selfishly here. He seems to truly believe that worship of him
is good, and that people following him is a good thing he needs
to increase and ensure exists in order to give value to the universe.
He sees explicit monotheism as a necessary perspective, and one which
is explicitly focused on veneration of god. So his existence, and
his insistence on being followed relate to that idea of this as
anecessary ideal core to human existence. Since megaten's world is
not inherently monotheist, this relates to voltaire's quite “If
God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.“
This also ties to how interviews imply that people worshiping him
are implicitly worshiping the great will as well. Since yhvh
as monotheistic god conflates himself with it, and sees that
absolute aspect as the foundation of his authority. This is also
the implication of the line in iva that his very existence
debases humanity. Because it implies and places the value of people
and moral action necessarily in a relation to him, rather than as
something that exists in and of itself.

Note that these things apply to the more corrupt versions of
yhvh.Less corrupt versions are not implied to hold these positions in
as much of an absolute, instead trying to be part of the system,
and important for that reason. Note also that it doesn't seem like
his goal is always to maximize believers. In some contexts like in iva
he intends to uphold a binary choice of for or against him to let
people choose. This is based on the christian idea of free will, and
god allowing a free choice to people whether to accept or reject him.

This also gives context for yhvh's goals in apocalypse. A common concern he has is the possibility of humanity outgrowing him. And if he thinks that humanity must follow him for existential validation, then he believes he must work to prevent this. As such, him secretly empowering the demons to have them undermine the goals of law is done because even in a world of law humanity will eventually develop beyond a need for viewing him as absolute, as shown in smtii. So he seeks to limit humanity's progress to keep them dependent on him.

**Kaaba** is a term for the structure at the center of Islam's most important mosque, which is seen as the dwelling place of god. Being the most holy site for muslims, this is the direction they are instructed to pray towards during daily islamic prayers. In apocalypse, the monalith used to acess yhvh's universe is likely meant to loosely call the kaaba to mind. Especially since sj has a more clear reference to it. Showing it as the manifestation on earth of he path to yhvh.

**Kabbalah** the appearance of yhvh's planin iva is heavily
inspired by the kabbalah. In the kabbalah,the demons who represent
the dark side are not bugs or enemies of thesystem, but part of it,
albeit their influence meant to be rejectedin favor of siding with
god. In some forms the moderators of the dark side work for god
directly. So the struggle between demons andangels is deliberate, and
all part of the larger system, rather than a trueopposition. In-game
it is deliberately caused by yhvh, but theangels and demons are not
aware that it is a ruse, and both havetheir own ideas of what the end
goal will be, until they realize itwas a trick and unite to fight
him.

**Kairos** in christian theology is a term that means god's time, or the time appointed by god. It is generally used to highlight the need to not be concerned over the time of events, since god will have them happen when he chooses. In SMTI and II a large facet of the struggle is the fact that the center decided not to wait for god's plan, and so put into motion a plan for the messiah themselves. In smt nine, the group called the neo messians actively reject reliance on god for this reason, saying that they shouldn't wait for the actions of a remote out of touch god, but need to work towards the world of law now themselves.

**Lesser yhvh** refers to the special role of metatron as
the voice of god under the presumption that god does not speak
directlyto humans. In-game it is implied at least in apocalypse that
this isthe case, and metatron is referred to as the lesser yhvh.

**Mahabrahma** is a term for a great god in buddhism who was
seen as a creator god before being corrected by the buddha. The
mahabrahma thought this due to being born into a heaven first, and
wishing for other beings to appear, interpreting their later births
there as his own doing. While no direct analogue of this appears in
the games, the games tie themselves a bit to the buddhist analogue of
downplaying a god that presents itself as a creator god in yhvh.

**Mahadeva** is a term that means "great god." Gods
in hinduism are called devas, but the more high gods more directly
associated with brahman are called mahadeva in reference to their
higher status. In an interview for apocalypse they talked about great
ones highlighting the distinction between mere gods in a world versus
ones in the role yhvh has with power over the world itself.

**Monotheism** is defined as the belief in the existence of
only one god, usually that created the world, is all-powerful and
intervenes in the world. While the pluriform monotheistic aspects
associated with law in general still apply here, corrupt versions of
yhvh in general tend to view themselves as the absolute face, with
others being mere derivatives. While yhvh allows other gods to work
under him, he does still claim uniquely monotheistic status. One
facet of yhvh's corruption is that he presents himself as more
classically religious in the absolute sense of being an
unquestionable being. Which is distinct from how the other figures
present themselves religiously.

Notably, while law has other gods on it, the degree of his
corruption often resembles the degree to which the focus is more on
him as monotheistic. In which sense his view of them would probably
resemble to some degree the lesser status of catholic saints. It also
somewhat resembles aspects of hinduism in which various gods exist,
but which is often viewed as a monotheistic religion regardless in
terms of focus on the mahadeva, the great gods. Yhvh then considers
himself a necessary sole face of the true god, and other gods he may
allow to be beneath him are then lesser derivatives who don't have
equal status. But again, note that this applies mainly to corrupt
versions and non corrupt versions are different in tone.

**Monolatry** is belief in the existence of many gods but with
the consistent worship of only one deity. Monolatry is distinguished
from henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships
one god without denying that others may worship different gods with
equal validity. In the case of corrupt versions of yhvh, his views of
himself are somewhere between molonatry and monotheism, with him
downplaying the status of other gods.

**Mortal sin**, in Catholic theology, is a gravely sinful act,
which can lead to damnation if a person does not repent of the sin
before death. In order to go to hell you have to be in a state of
mortal sin. In nocturne, the lady in black refers to hijiri as having
committed a mortal sin. This being an implied term for something yhvh
reacts to with unending punishment. If hijiri is aleph, this
presumably being targeting yhvh. Notably, yhvh doesn't seem to
ascribe eternal punishment very often, save in cases of being
targeted.

**Omnipresence** refers to the nature of god as being in all
places and times at once. In apocalypse, yhvh claims something
resembling this ability, saying that he is always by your side, and
so knows what led you to him. However, at times there is implied to
be things he does not know, so he is likely exaggerating this claim.
Also lacking omniscience and omnipotence.

**Open theism** is the theology that god does not know the future. This can either imply that god willingly chooses not to, or that knowledge of the future is impossible for anyone, including god. In megaten, yhvh, being limited, obviously does not know the future fully, though his knowledge is implied to be very great.

**Original sin** is the Christian doctrine of humanity's state
of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve's
rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming from
the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is often depicted as
orienting humanity originally to sin through inheritance, providing a
basis for the christian doctrine of salvation from sin. YHVH in iva
refers to original sin as well, presumably thinking that humans
indeed have some kind of sin nature that faith in him is necessary to
free them from. Though no explanation is given as to its
connotations.

**Providentialism** is the belief that all events on Earth are
controlled by God. While absolute versions of this idea do not exist
in megaten since yhvh is not absolute, the games do highlight at times
that yhvh has some form of overall control over the unfolding of
events. In raidou 2 you are told that the future is set in place by
god, and only you can disrupt it.

**Samsara** in dharmic religions refers to the cycle of birth and death, and the world-cycle in general. While the games treat this as a facet of existence in worlds in general, it also gets associated with yhvh in nocturne in the sense that he is upholding the flow of the world, and in the true demon ending you seek to end it.

**Sky father**. In comparative mythology, sky father is a term
for a recurring concept of a sky god who is addressed as a "father",
often the father of a pantheon. The concept of "sky father"
may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics.
The concept is complementary to an "earth mother". Yhvh is
presented in this way, in contrast to mem aleph being an earth
mother. Notably, in smti pagan gods like thor and echidna talk about
him more like the head of a pantheon of gods rather than a truly
monotheistic being.

**The Image of God** is a concept and theological doctrine in
Judaism, Christianity, and Sufism of Islam, which asserts that human
beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Philosophers and
theologians have debated the exactmeaning of the phrase for
millennia.In megaten, the word image is somewhat literal, since adam
is said to have a face resembling that of yhvh. And this ties to their
connection, and the implicit value yhvh ascribes in humanity.

**The problem of evil** is thephilosophical question of asking
whether the suffering that exists inthe world is compatible with the
idea of an all-good, all-powerfuland all-knowing God. The implication
being that a god with this powerwould have a moral obligation to
prevent it, and that the absence ofdoing so is not compatible with
being good if one has the power. This is brought up by naoya who says
that if god was truly perfect, his creation would never falter. But
its imperfect nature shows that god is imperfect as well.

**The Ten Commandments**, also known as the **Decalogue**,
are a set of biblical laws relating to ethics and worship, which play
a fundamental role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The
commandments include instructions to worship only God, to honour one's
parents, and to keep the sabbath, as well as prohibitions against
idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, dishonesty, and
coveting. Different religious groups follow different traditions
for interpreting and numbering them. While they are not
mentioned directly, unused art for yhvh's second form in iva shows
them, implying his commandments relating to them. Due to the
importance placed on his worship by himself in-game. Various games do
imply he has specific standards beyond merely being worshipped, though
what those might be are left ambiguous.

**The three jewels** in buddhism refer to the buddha, the law, and the religious community. Taking refuge in these is how one becomes a buddhist. While this is an ambiguous potential inspiration, in SMTII, in addition to looking like the sephirot, the avatars of god closely resemble the three jewels, which are often depicted in three primary colors, mainly blue, yellow, and red.

**The Throne of God** is the reigning centre of God in the
Abrahamic religions: primarily Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The
throne is said by various holy books to reside beyond the Seventh
Heaven and is called **Araboth** in Judaism. In the games,
whatever special power god has over the world is often described with
a throne or shown with one, with this being an implicit seat of power
that gives them special abilities. Most obviously stated in devil
survivor 2 where heaven's throne is described as the basis of
polaris' power. In apocalypse satan refers to the place yhvh resides
as his throne, though notably there is no visible throne there. In SMTI the cathedral is stated to be god's throne on earth.

**The** **Trimurti** is the Triple deity of supreme divinity
in Hinduism in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance,
and destruction are personified as a triad of deities, typically
Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.
While this is only a faint association, yhvh's relation to satan
seems to loosely have influence from the trimurti as well. Because
satan both looks like and takes on a role similar to shiva relative
to yhvh, despite still being presented as a lesser being. And so yhvh
in a sense is absorbing all the various monotheistic conceptions into
himself.

**Tao**. While the tao is primarily a neutral concept, in smtii's law ending, when yhvh dies he uses the word for tao when asking whether you will really be able to find your path without him. However, this is a very offhand line. Note that the term tao is not exclusive to taoism, but is used to mean path which is often a term used to contextualize ethics in much of east asia. Even the word shinto is derived from the word tao.

## The world-cycle

This section includes things associated with the world cycle in general. Since nocturne is ambiguous whether yhvh was merely a god presiding over it for a time, or the one in charge, and games like v and iva treat it as seperate, this will be its own section. However, some things related to the world cycle will be lumped in with the yhvh section.

**Adibuddha**. In nocturne, kagutsuchi is a composite figure that also includes virochana, due to being at the center of the womb realm and taking the form of the sun, which virochana embodies. The term miroku is also seemingly used for the collective of kagutsuchi and those who partake in creation, giving an additional association with buddhas. Like virochana's relationship to the womb realm mandala in buddhism, kagutsuchi represents the potential for growth, here which  due to being a composite figure with the cosmic egg conflates the growth as an individual with something which also has worldly ramifications. However, nocturne is hazy as to whether yhvh is someone presiding over the system, or just a god who existed in it.

**Amenominakanushi** is a term for the first kami, and the source of the universe according to shinto. They are described as coming into being alone, and as the primary of the three kami of creation, and the five distinguished heavily gods. (**kotoamatsukami**). All these categories are categories of beings that come in a primordial time that are prior to the amatsukami and kunitsukami that the religion focuses on. In nocturne, kagutsuchi is raised to the level of primordial kami of creation. Though kagutsuchi is mixed with the idea of the cosmic egg. In a similar vein, In mtii yhvh's race was listed as Yuiitsukami, which was a term made for mtii.

**Amitabha** in pure land is a buddha one can pray to for salvation. In V, he is depicted as part of the cycle of gods, though how is left ambiguous. The in-game figure bears little resemblance to the religious figure.

**Buddhas**. Although this is not an accurate depiction of what buddhas are in buddhism, most figures associated with presiding over the world-cycle tend to be buddhist in nature. Possibly in terms of the idea of buddhas as manifestation of dharmakaya, as well as the cycle's buddhist tone in general.

**Kathenotheism** is the worship of one god at a time. In some games it hints that the role of top god shifts from time to time, sometimes even as a natural law that brings forth the shift, such as in smtv or last bible new testament. There are some demons who seem to not support any ideology in particular, instead serving whoever is top god, and seeking to help bring forth whoever they find worthy. This is not every universe however, and doesn't necessarily preclude other gods existing in a lower position.

**The cosmic egg**, or world egg is a mythological motif found
in the creation myths of many cultures and civilizations. Typically,
the world egg is a beginning of some sort, and the universe or some
primordial being comes into existence by "hatching" from the
egg, sometimes lain on the primordial waters of the Earth. One of the
earliest ideas of "egg-shaped cosmos" comes from some of the
Sanskrit scriptures. The Upanishads elaborate that the
Hiranyagarbha floated around in emptiness for a while, and then broke
into two halves which formed Dyaus (Heaven) and Prithvi (Earth). The
Rig Veda has a similar coded description of the division of the
universe in its early stages.

The cosmic egg is depicted as a major part of the world cycle shift. Kagutsuchi in nocturne is depicted as the cosmic egg. And krishna creates his own to give birth to a new world. In sj the term is also used for things that have the pwoer to transform the world.

**The shattering of the vessels** is seen as a primordial event in kabbalah where the breaking of the sephirot allowed evil to enter into the world. The kabbalic idea of the shattering of the vessels is mentioned in last bible, where an enemy called kether says that at the beginning of creation, the lord of creation shattered the vessels to allow light to spread across the world. Later on, you are told that the shattering of the vessels gave rise to something called the word, which is a differentiating force, distinguishing self, other, victory, defeat, and life and death. Allowing for the birth of individuals. And you defeat an enemy called kether, who says you have recreated this event. Defeating kagutsuchi in nocturne is likely also meant as a recreation of this idea, due to its emphasis on being filled with light, and you fighting it to give rise to a new reality.

**The empyrean**, while referenced in other games, is explicitly associated with the world cycle in v, being the place the throne of god is located, and which you must enter to interact with it.

**Maitreya** is a term for a future buddha that is used to personify the cycle of death and rebirth in nocturne. The term doesn't seem to refer to a specific entity, but lumps together everyone who has a hand in the cycle.

**Mandala**. A mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in the Indian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe. It is generally seen as depicting the abode of a deity in a way that represents underlying aspects of part of reality in general. In vajrayana they depict how the mind is a microcosm of the forces at play in the universe itself. In hinhuism it is often called a **yantra**, which has similar connotations. While the diamond realm is a neutral affiliated area, seen both in game and on the title screen of smtii, the womb realm shows up as a metaphysical space that holds the energy of the primordial universe. in V the mandala system is a term for the cycle of rebirth of the world.

**Panagia** is a term for the virgin mary in catholicism. In V it is a title for tao, who has a role in guiding the nahobino to the throne. The literal meaning is all-holy.

**Pralaya** (literally non existence) is a hindu term for dissolution, which specifies a time when a world is dissolved and has no activity until the next creation. During each pralaya, the lower ten realms (loka) are destroyed, while the higher four realms are preserved. The word Mahapralaya stands for *Great Dissolution*. During each Mahapralaya, all 14 realms are destroyed. The mahapralaya when shiva destroys the world marks the end of the **kali yuga**, the final period of the world where things become so corrupt they are no longer salvagable. And this cycle goes on endlessly in a cyclic pattern of death and rebirth. While smtii's cycle of rebirth also loosely references this idea, a more direct version is shown in nocturne, where the world literally ends and has a dead period before being reborth.

**Shinbutsu-shugo,** also known as **kami-buddha teachings** is the syncretism of Buddhism and kami worship that de facto functioned as Japan's organized religion and religious paradigm up until the Meiji period. While many buddhist and shinto sites existed seperate from eachother, in practice they were seen as part of a bigger picture. While this unity also shows up as an aspect of the sides, it also shows up in nocturne where kagutsuchi is elavated to the level of cosmic creator god, and sits at the center of the womb realm. Giving a tone of the mixture of buddhist and shinto teachings as part of yhvh's paradigm. Note that in nocturne the tone of abrahamic religion is heavily downplayed.

**The throne of god** is associated with the cycle, being what gives power to the one in charge in v, and hinted at in other games.

**Trailoka** is a hindu term that means "three worlds."
It also became part of buddhism. It can refer to various aspects of
spiritual reality, or at times to the past, present, and future. In
nocturne they talk about the destruction of the three worlds leading
to the conception, but it is not clear what they mean by the phrase.

**Womb realm**. In vajrayana buddhism the womb realm is a metaphysical realm that the wisdom kings live in which is often paired with the diamond realm. While the diamond realm represents accomplishments, the womb realm represents beginnings. In game, the womb realm shows up in nocturne, where the vortex world is openly stated to be it in the japanese version. And as such is part of yhvh's system for maintaining and moderating the rebirth of the worlds.

## Shared concepts

**108** is a sacred number in buddhism that has a variety of meanings, being said to show up in the amount of human desires or feelings, and even in cosmic contexts. It is also the number of beads on buddhist malas. At least once chaos is shown placing significance on this number, in the location of master therion's ritual in infernal tokyo. Yhvh also shows up as level 108 in smtii.

**Absolute**. In philosophy and religion the absolute is a term for whatever the uncoditioned reality that holds supreme ontological status is. It can be a force or a law or a monad or a being or any number of things. In megaten, the absolute is the axiom. But different sides see it in different ways.

**Aeon** refers to spiritual entities from the pleroma in gnosticism. While they are hinted to exist in some games, the idea of aeons also comes up with aion from soul hackers 2, which functions as a kind of divinity created via technology.

**Aether** was a fifth element proposed by aristotle, which he
considered to be the divine substance that makes up the heavenly
spheres andheavenly bodies (stars and planets). In the games, aether
is said to be a mystical essence that is within all things, but is
primarily emanated from humanity. It is seen as the mystical
substance that makes up demon worlds, which is why they are heavily
influenced by human thoughts due to human thoughts affecting the
patterns that they flow in. Aether is also what demon bodies are
composed of, which is why it is difficult for them to incarnate in
the human world for long without a large source of it. Aether, dark
matter, and magnetite are all said to be the same thing.

**Aggregates** or skandhas in buddhism refer to the five
factors that constitute and explain a sentient being’s person and
personality. They are seen as a collection of properties that shows
that there is no true underlying stable or discrete self. This is a
major facet of the understanding of reality in megaten, with gabriel
even using the word aggregations to explain demons being bundles of
thoughts. This is normally seen as a competing idea against the idea
of the soul, but in megaten the word soul is used to describe the
bundle of thoughts.

**Alatrism** is the recognition of the existence of one or more
gods, but with a deliberate lack of worship of any deity. Typically,
it includes the belief that religious rituals have no supernatural
significance, and that gods ignore all prayers and worship. Alatrism
is not identical to deism, since some deists still believe in
worship. It also does not exclude the possibility that gods
intervene; alatrists usually believe that any divine intervention
occurs only for the deity's / deities' own reasons, unconnected to any
encouragement by devotees. Historical alatrist groups include the
epicureans and neopthagoreans.

There are aspects of this in megaten at times, since many of the
sides' relationship to the gods is not necessarily worship per say,
especially on neutral. And in addition, due to the constructed nature
of the religions, the rituals while they may have imbued significance
are normally not considered inherently significant as an absolute
facet of the universe. The demons are treated as real beings, and so
aspects of the events are more open ended. It is not necessarily full
alatrism however, eve if leaning in that direction.

**Alchemy** is a philosophical andprotoscientific tradition
practiced throughout Egypt and Eurasiawhich aimed to purify, mature,
and perfect certain objects. It later evolved into the idea of
chemistry. It was practiced as a kind of in between state between
science and spirituality. While it often had the goal of transforming
base materials into gold, this was also seen as a metaphor for
revealing the inner light of reality in general, and spiritual
enlightenment. With an implication that the fully enlightened could
live forever. Alchemy was also a large inspiration on psychology due
to tying the idea of the mind to an understanding of the physical
world. The games present it as a common thing, and often relate the
idea of demon fusion to it, especially as regards elementals, which
are an idea from alchemy.

**Altars** are things at the front ofsome churches which are
used as the central focus of the service. Atthe end of SJ it says
that skyscrapers were transformed into altarsto commune with God,
implying that this type of thing is now spreadto the world at large.
And in sj on chaos you see large structures that resemble altars. In
catholic masses, the communion is preparedon the altar, which is the
central aspect of the service. Altars are used by all the sides for
various services, sometimes literal sacrifices.

**Animism** is the worldview that(usually all) non-human
entities—such as animals, plants, andinanimate objects—possess a
spiritual essence. Animism is used inthe anthropology of religion as
a term for the belief system of someindigenous tribal peoples,
especially prior to the development oforganized religion. Although
each culture has its own differentmythologies and rituals, "animism"
is said to describe themost common, foundational thread of indigenous
peoples' "spiritual"or "supernatural"
perspectives. The Animistic perspectiveis so fundamental, mundane,
everyday, and taken-for-granted that mostanimistic indigenous people
do not even have a word in theirlanguages that corresponds to
"animism" (or even"religion"); the term is an
anthropological construct. Animism can still be a part of later
religions however, being preserved in some such as shinto.

Animism is highlighted as a facet of the games in general, where
at times it implied that all things contain spiritual essence, though
it is not always formulated into a tangible distinct sentient spirit.
In the smt2 visionary items you are told directly by izanami that
there is soul in all things.

**Anthropopathism** is the attribution of human emotions, or the ascription of human feelings or passions to a non-human being, generally to a deity. In megaten this is to a degree literal, because human emotions literally influence and give rise to deities in megaten.

**Apotheosis** is when a being that was not previously a god
turns into a god. All the sides show some examples of this. Neutral
showing ex humans becoming gods who retain their human elements. Chaos
showing that you can raise to godhood.And law having talk about how
you can become an angel, or at times even a face of god.

**Apotropaism** is the use of ritual or other magical means (including charms and/or incantations) to avert evil or bad luck. This shows up in the games at various times, with luck seemingly being a semi tangible force that can be altered at times, most notably with the luck locusts in raidou 2.

**As above, so below** is a phrase derived from an early hermetic text. It highlights the idea of the correspondence between different planes of existence. While it can be read as a physical perspective, talking about the cosmic order influencing earth, it is often read as about spiritual realms, and the idea that aspects of them influence the human world and vice versa. It can also include the idea that magicians influence the human world by influencing the spiritual world. In megaten, this correspondence likewise exists between the realms. In majin tensei II you are told directly that whatever happens in one realm influences the others. And similar principles are hinted at in other games, such as the principle of observation.

**Ascension** or **initiation** are terms in theosophy and ascended master teachings for raising in spiritual enlightenment. The higher ones level raises the higher a spiritual being they are. While humans ordinarily undergo reincarnation, those who reach the fourth level or higher are no longer subject to it. However, unlike in buddhism where the goal is paranirvana, in theosophy one can remain and keep practicing obtaining ever higher levels of ascension over millions or billions of years. In megaten, this is most strongly associated with neutral, due to their focus on elightened humans as their main gods, but all the sides have elements of it. Chaos has sanat kumara the ascended master on their side, and mastema talks about ascending to a divine form.

**Assiah** is the fourth world in the kabbalah, known as the
human world, but has both a physical and a spiritual plane. The games
have a heavily kabbalic tone, because at various times the human
world is referred to as Asiyah. And once it gets referred to as
malkuth, the lowest sephirot.

**Astrology** is the study of the movements and relative
positions of celestial objects as a means of divining information
about human affairs and terrestrial events. Various times in the
games astrology shows up. It is loosely associated with chaos as a
side, since various chaos figures use astrological symbols, but they
are not seen engaging in it more than any other side.

**Athame** is a term for a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in ceremonial magick traditions, and by other neopagans, witchcraft, as well as satanic traditions. A black-handled knife called an arthame appears in certain versions of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire originating in the Middle Ages. It shows up as a weapon in some games, though it doesn't seem affilaited with any group in particular.

**Atziluth**, in kabbalah is the first of the four worlds. It
is the world of **archetypes**, meaning world that lays out the
beginnings of the divine plan. Independent beings don't exist in this
world, merely archetypes that are later manifested into lower worlds
to be put into action. Based loosely on plato's concept of the forms.
In the games, the abyss is often referred to as atziluth to highlight
the fact that demons emanate from archetypes.

**Avatar.** An avatar is a concept in Hinduism that means
"descent", and refers to the material appearance or
incarnation of a deity on earth. Often it refers to when the
incarnation is an independently sentient being. Various beings in the
games are avatars of other beings, notably the avatars of god. And an
entire demon race of avatars.

**Baptism** is a Christian rite of admission and adoption,
almost invariably with the use of water, into Christianity. The
synoptic gospels recount that John the Baptist baptised Jesus.
Baptism is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an
ordinance in others. In SMTI, both the messian and gaian churches
have baptism rites to let you enter into their church if you seek it.
And so those are ceremonies to let you enter the religion.

**Brahman**. In digital devil saga, theyuse the term and
concept **brahman** directly, relating it to thehindu concept, and
at the end seraph makes a realization noting thatbrahman is the world
and the world is themself. Showing a monistic kind of open
individualist leaning view. With brahman and its avatar (which is
justcalled brahman in game, referencing brahman with qualities in
hinduism) functioning like a different divine avatarsystem for that
world. One which it is mentioned at times is not theone the angels
are used to interacting with. Likewise, this is alsorelated to the
pantheistic works of schrodinger, who consideredmodern quantum
physics to point towards a form of relation thatresembles the concept
of brahman. The ending in dds2 seems to beinterpreted as a neutral
ending, though it does not particularlydepict brahman itself as
aligned with it in particular.

Brahman obviously is in some way related to the great will, being
the multiversal world soul and power of being in reality. Something
to note is that the chaos side is heavily dharmic in tone, and even
uses an om as a symbol. However, they are never really seen talking
about themselves as part of something bigger in this sense. And so it
is not clear to what degree they focus on the idea. Chaos instead
upholds maya as a spiritual force that helps develop individual
identity.

**Bunrei**. In an interview for iva they relate differentiation
of specific beings from the great will to the shinto term Bunrei or
wakemitama which is a technical term that indicates both the process
of division of a Shinto kami to be re-enshrined somewhere else, and
the divided spirit which is the result of thedivision. Showing that
things' identity comes from divisions within the larger great will /
world soul giving rise to individual aspects seen as more distinct.
This can happen not just from demons or humans arising from the great
will at large, but from demons coming from eachother also.This
differentiation of parts of the great will gives rise to
the multiplicity of beings seen within reality. And demon also derive
from other demons, such as angels developing into the idea of
different types of angels.

**Ceremonialism** is a certain emphasis on following a ritualistic pattern. In many cases the demons when appearing to humanity are choosing to present themselves and act based on specific ceremonial formats that are expected of them. And in majin tensei ii an npc in amnesia talks about the fact that they perform these ceremoial actions.

**Chakras**. A chakra (wheel) is an energy centre in the human
body as taught in Indian yoga and some related cultures. Chakras are
also believed in by some New Age adherents. A chakra is an area in
the body connected with life energy. There are seven chakras in the
body - each is an interface for the flow of life energy. In digital
devil saga the areas in the junkyard are named after the chakras,
giving a tone of the process as one of development. There are also
items with the word chakra in the name.

**Chalice**. A chalice is a footed cup intended to hold a
drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking
during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. Although
the law side is also implied to use them, the most notable example is
the chalice of hope in SMTIV used as part of a ritual to restore
masakado.

**Consolation** and **desolation** are terms in christianity that highlight times when your faith is strong and you feel the presence of god, versus when it is weak and you do not. The games often highlight this feeling of losing faith in god, and the various responses to it.

**Crypto-paganism** is a term for when a pagan maintains the pretense of adherence to a non-pagan (e.g. Abrahamic) religion while continuing to observe their own religious practices in private. Often used as an accusation that certain monotheistic theologies are so influenced by pagan ones that they are pagan in nature. The games imply some semblance of crypto paganism having gone on in the past. Even the law side has pagan figures on it, which implies that these survived within the lawful paradigm and later manifested in a more overt way. This is also a large element of the divine powers, since gods of theirs like beelzebub restore their pagan forms when joining them, leaving behind the ones they got from abrahamic religion.

**Curse**. A curse is any expressed wish that some form of
adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity:
one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, "curse"
may refer to such a wish or pronouncement made effective by a
supernatural or spiritual power, such as a god or gods, a spirit, or
a natural force, or else as a kind of spell by magic or witchcraft.
Curses are a major facet of the games. Most specifically if you go
against yhvh and lose you can get a curse that will stick with you
indefinitely.

**Death of god** refers to an existentialist concept relating
to the fact that moving into the future the idea of being born into a
world with an explicit telos no longer applies, and so people are
forced to find their own meaning in various ways. Many religious are
influenced by these concepts, and lead to modern theologies based on
it, such as death of god theology. In megaten, all the sides tend to
be more self aware about their religions not being reflective of
obvious narratives built into reality, and so even if they are
correct it is something they have to uphold themselves. Fighting
against yhvh is presented as a death of god type moment where people
are shown having to find value in a world moving past being able to
rely on him to provide meaning.

**Deicide** is the killing of a god. While many gods have died
in mythology, most have been killed by other gods. A large basis of
the games is the fact that humans are capable of killing or even
creating new gods. Referring to the one who can do so as a godslayer
in apocalypse.

**Demonization** is the reinterpretation of deities as evil
figures demons by other religions, or occasionally by later beliefs
in their own. This being something that happens literally in-game,
where various figures are turned into demons. While this is mainly
associated with the angels in-game, who cast down gods of chaos who
will not repent or join them, and turn them into demons, it is also
something that happens to yhvh at times, done by chaos or others. So
it is not something exclusive to any given group. The vile race is
composed of many gods who were demonized by their own religions.

**Demons** to the people in game refer not to just evil
entities, but is occasionally used as a term for spirits as a whole.
However, it is less common to refer to gods or angels as demons. This
being because the word demon originally merely meant spirit, rather
than evil spirit. Though in-game the use of the word is often between
those things, highlighting how any spirit can be a danger to a human.

**Desacralization** is a term for when something formerly
considered of religious significance has that significance downplayed
or erased. Part of the overlying plot of the games is not necessarily
denying the sacred altogether, but denying its absolute nature apart
form humans.

**Discernment of spirits** is a term for the ability to judge the origin of spiritual drives that are trying to influence you to see which are good or which are evil. This will not merely be from spirits tangibly appearing to you but will also relate to internal subconscious drives one is given. A large facet of megaten is the fact that spirits of many kinds will be trying to influence you, and you are called to judge between them. With steven telling you not to let your eyes decieve you.

**Divine coucil**. A Divine Council is an assembly of deities over which a higher-level god presides. They exist in various religions, more often polytheistic ones. In the games, divine councils are a facet of the way many of the sides do things. Not only internaly, such as with law having an implied council of angels, but in majin tensei ii there is a council composed of both angels and fallen angels working together for neutrality.

**Divinity** is the state of being divine. One of the facets of the games is the fact that what is a god and thus has divinity can change.

**Dragon vein**, or **dragon line** is a term for a concept from chinese religion of spiritual lines of energy that run along the earth and up the mountains that connect the yang of he sky to the yin of the earth. It is the basis of the later western spiritual idea of ley lines. In devil survivor 2, the dragon vein (known as dragon stream in the us) is a source of energy that has been used by the hotsuin family to protect japan since ancient times. It can be manifested in a shape resembling an actual dragon. These terms are treated as interchangeable with leyline itself, which is also a thing talked about as existing within the planet in dx2, and as a means of transport in V. Likewise, in SMTII, the kuzuryu is implied to be based on the idea of leylines and dragon veins.

**Dualism** in cosmology is the moral or spiritual belief that
two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is
an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various
religions, including both traditional religions and scriptural
religions. The understanding that law and chaos exist as opposing
forces is of course common in the games. Tough notably, this is not
necessarily an inherent facet of reality, albeit one that commonly
arises, since some universes exist where it is not as large a focus.
The different sides of course each have different understandings
about the ramifications of what the ramifications of this are.

**Dystheism** is the belief that godsmay not be fully good, but
have moral slates that may be equivalentto that of humans, but on a
larger scale. Many classical polytheismsactually were this, and in
those versions the gods were viewed notnecessarily as perfect moral
guidance, but as forces that can be looked up toor interacted with
for other reasons.

**Emanationism** is the idea that the cause of certain beings
or states of being consists of an overflow from the essence of God or
other higher spiritual beings, as opposed to a special act of
creation. The first reality is often thought of as “God”even
though in many forms (though by no means all of them) it is
notmeaningfully independently sentient. The games do seem to imply
that the axiom is some kind of first principle that emanated rather
than specifically created reality, yet is alsothe summation of
everything within existence.

**Evil eye** is the idea of a curse that can be given via a malevolent glare. In majin tensei a demon paralyses someone in your party via using it.

**Exorcism** is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting
demons or other spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that
are believed to be possessed. Exorcism is a common concept in the
games in general, but most notably the light skills are implied to be
based on exorcism based practices. Notably, this is why humans are
generally immune to them. The light based skills in the games are
based on shinto **Ofuda**, which are a type of paper used as a
protective talisman in shinto given out by shrines.

**False god** is a term in some monotheistic religions to refer
to pagan deities who are deemed as invalid. It is occasionally also
used by polytheists to deem monotheistic gods false. In megaten, it
is a term held by various sides to deem the gods of other sides
illegitimate. Odin tells dagda that in their world there will be no
false gods. And even yhvh is referred to as a false god in chains. In
SMTII there is also a literal false yhvh.

**Feng shui** or **fengshui**, also known as **Chinese**
geomancy**, is a spiritual practice originating from China, which**
claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their
surrounding environment by arranging the things in the environment
properly. Though it does not have a major focus in the games, tenkai
was described as using it as practice to help design the city of edo.

**Firmament**. In biblical cosmology, the firmament is the structure above the atmosphere of Earth, conceived as a vast solid dome. According to the Genesis creation narrative, God created the firmament to separate the "waters above" the earth from the "waters below" the earth. This being because space was literally seen as full of water, with the firmament seperating it from earth, and rain was when some of it leaked in. In IV the term firmament is used for the dome over tokyo, which is a literal firmament.

**Fortune** or **luck** is the concept that defines the random element of situations, and how chance can affect things outside of your control. While naturalistic interpretations consider this to be mere random chance, supernatural interpretations consider it to be an attribute of a person or object, or the result of a favorable or unfavorable view of a deity upon a person. In raidou 2, luck is shown to be a tangible thing that can be affected for individuals, changing their luck.

**Fortune telling** is the practice of predicting information
about a person's life. There are fortune tellers in some games,
especially in II. Sometimes using tarot cards in persona.

**Free will** is the ability to choose between different
possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to
the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, and other
judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is
also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation,
and prohibition. Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed
are seen as deserving credit or blame. There are numerous different
concerns about threats to the possibility of free will, varying by
how exactly it is conceived, which is a matter of some debate.
Perspectives on it are a large part of various religious, especially
abrahamic religions.

Free will is taken to exist to some degree in megaten, though not
in an absolute sense. Many of the games highlight the reality that
various things bind or control your will, but they present it as if
freedom has to still be understood as existing to some degree in
spite of this. The different sides also have different perspectives
on free will, the nature of what makes you free, and the importance
of it. Even corrupt versions of yhvh are shown as often interested in
free will, such as in apocalypse where his goal was to uphold a
binary choice to allow people to choose for or against him.

**Gilgul** / **Gilgul neshamot** / **Gilgulei Ha Neshamot** describes a Kabbalistic concept of reincarnation. In Hebrew, the word *gilgul* means "cycle" or "wheel" and *neshamot* is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to "cycle" through "lives" or "incarnations", being attached to different human bodies over time. Which body they associate with depends on their particular task in the physical world, spiritual levels of the bodies of predecessors and so on.

People are seen as reincarnating as many times as they need to to fulfill all of the commandments. And so reincarnation is not necessarily seen as a punishment, or automatic, but as a deliberate rebirth given to allow their soul to continue to grow. Sometimes a soul may reside on earth for awhile after death in a disembodied state. A good disembodied spirit is known as an ibbur and a bad one is known as a dybbuk. The latter of which shows up as a demon in the games.

Reincarnation of course is a large facet of the games. But notably is not given an explicitly kabbalic tone, with instead more of a focus on samsara and karma being given for it. But the worldview of the games heavily tying to an overal kabbalic worldview inherently makes that tone a thing that is called to mind.

**Gods** in the games has the specific connotation of being a
spirit who has a specific type of presumed rightful authority or
power over values, or part of the world. While demons can also be
embodiment of aspects of the earth, gods are differentiated in that
they are often beings upheld by humanity as the embodiment of an
ideal telos in some sense. Note of course that being a god does not
prove that they are a good entity, merely that they are the one being
upheld in this way. With the emphasis being on that humans can choose
their own god, and should be careful of the choices they make.

**Goetia** is a rennisance term for demon summoning, with a pseudo history tying it back to king solomon. Its counterpart involving holy beings was known as theurgy. Note that demon summoning does not automatically imply demon worship, since esoteric magicians claimed they could command them in god's name. While at first glance, this may seem like a specifically chaotic practice, all sides summon demons, and some on chaos even see it as heretical if done by a machine in a way that is forcible. The aesthetics of summoning in the games tend to reference the goetia.

In some interpretations of goetia, the magican can recieve ability to do magic via the power of demons. This is conveyed through games like Iv with the idea of demonic whisper where the demons teach you their own magic.

**Grimoire**. A grimoire or a book of spells is a textbook of
magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical
objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells,
charms and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural
entities such as angels, spirits, deities and demons. Grimoire as a
term shows up in the games a few times.

**Hell money** is money designed to resemble bank notes which is burned to send to the afterlife to alleviate the money troubles of ghosts in various east asian traditions. he concept of makka is likely loosely based on it.

**Heresy** is belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious
(especially Christian) doctrine. Mastema offhandedly talks about it
in sj, though it is not clearly delineated what it means in that
context. Likewise, the cult of gaia considered hikawa to be a heretic
due to his orderly slant. So the groups seem to consider you
heretical when you take their teachings in a direction of another
alignment. Demiurge also refers to the demons of chaos as heretics. Which implies that it is a term used in general for anyone of an opposing slant. As if they saw all religions and ideologies as derivatives of the same world, and so the distinction between a twist on the idea versus a different one was less upheld.

**Hermeticism**. While chaos has a hermeticism with more general information, hermeticism in general has inspired esoteric mysticism and so is relevant to all sides. One more specific reference happens in devil survivor, where naoya refers to the internet as an imaginary hermetic space.

**Hollow earth theory** refers to the idea that the planet Earth is entirely hollow or contains a substantial interior space. It is a facet of various mythological beliefs that talk about massive worlds underground, often which are tied to afterlives. In megaten it is the basis of certain plots, such as that of Iv or nocturne. And while the demon world is its own reality, it has the appearance of a subterranean world.

**Holy**. Something that is holy or sacred is something that is
dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity or
considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspiring awe
or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to
objects (a "sacred artifact" that is venerated and
blessed), or places ("sacred ground"). The concept of holy
seems to be used by all the sides, although slightly moreso by law.
there is even a group of demons labeled as holy race.

**Holy war**. A religious war or holy war (Latin: *bellum sacrum*) is a war primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. While one of the most well known of these is the crusades, zen buddhism also considered world war II a holy war for the sake of expanding the influence of japan's divine emperor. The sides obviously have a tone of viewing the events in this way, though noticably in this case it is not about mere abstract belief, but about the tangible differences in how the world will function under the different paradigms.

**Honji suijaku** refers to a theory in which Indian Buddhist deities choose to appear in Japan as native kami to more easily convert and save the Japanese. These deities are referred to as gongen. Literally the term means original substance, manifest trace. And comes from the chinese concept of the distinction between an eternal truth and its historical manifestations. Some later tried to invert the idea, saying the kami were the superior form. In the games you get a few versions of this. Krishna was said to come to japan in the form of kokuten. And baal uses the name gozu tennou. So there is an idea that external gods can take japanese forms.

**Hymn**. A hymn is a type of song, usually religious,
specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and
typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure
or personification. Music of course is implied to be used as part of
services by the various sides. Zelenin's song is also referred to as
a hymn. With mastema talking about how the song of the angels can
influence humans to peace, but that humanity has grown aloof from
being able to be affected by angels too distant from them.

**Incantation**. An incantation is a magical formula intended
to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can
be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed
during ceremonial rituals or prayers. Various points in the games
either show or reference incantations.

**Incense** is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant
smoke when burned. It is often used in religious rituals. In the
games, special forms of it can increase demon or even human abilities
slightly.

**Japanese new religions** refers to modern religions created recently in japan, often which have a cult-like demeanor. They tend to have four general characteristics. Being founded by a single charismatic leader, a tendency towards monotheistic supreme principles against a polytheistic backdrop, syncretism, and a this-worldly focus. The new religions usually teach that rapid change is happening soon, and a divine new age is imminent, and they place an emphasis on healing. Most of the new religions actually began as spiritual healing movements, only gradually developing a full spectrum of doctrine and practice. Both messianism and gaianism are inspired by the tone implied by these groups.

**Jihad** means "to strive or struggle" (in the way
of God). Depending on the object being a visible enemy, the Devil,
and aspects of one's own self (such as sinful desires), different
categories of jihad are defined. Jihad, when used without any
qualifier, is understood in its military aspect. Jihad also refers to
one's striving to attain religious and moral perfection. Some Muslim
authorities, especially among the Shi'a and Sufis, distinguish
between the "**greater jihad**", which pertains to
spiritual self-perfection, and the "**lesser jihad**",
defined as warfare. the term shows up in the game as attack names,
but is not associated with any side in particular.

**Jungianism** refers to the psychological and spiritual
beliefs of carl jung. Mainline is heavily based on his beliefs, since
demons function in a way similar to archetypes, being influenced by
human thought, and the spirit world being symbiotically connected to
the thoughts of humans. All the sides can be seen as drawing heavily
from his spiritual dynamic, but especially neutral. More information
on the jungianism page.

**Karma** in dharmic religions is a term for "action" or "work." It refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and
actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual
 (effect). While in some forms of hinduism it is seen like a form of divine judgement, in buddhism it is seen as cause and effect on a spiritual level. Karma is tied to the idea of rebirth, and to the cycle of samsara.

In megaten, karma exists and is seen as both at times a term for cause and effect in general, as well as something that influences future births. Though this concept of future births and influence is not perfect, due to souls travelling vaguely and ending up in different places. In strange journey demons call humans their fellow bearers of karma, highlighting how souls can incarnate as either.

**Li** is a classical Chinese word which is commonly used in
Chinese philosophy, particularly within Confucianism.  *Li*
does not encompass a definitive object but rather a somewhat abstract
idea and, as such, is translated in a number of different ways.
Originally used to refer to a sacrifice or rite, it later became used
to refer to the underlying reason and order of nature as reflected in
its organic forms. It may be translated as "rational principle"
or "law." It was central to Zhu Xi's integration of
Buddhism into Confucianism. Zhu Xi held that li, together with qi,
depend on each other to create structures of nature and matter. The
sum of li is the Taiji.

Human agency participates in the ordering of the universe by Li
('rites'). There are several Chinese definitions of a rite, one of
the most common definitions is that it transforms the invisible to
visible; through the performance of rites at appropriate occasions,
humans make visible the underlying order. Performing the correct
ritual focuses, links, orders, and moves the social, which is the
human realm, in correspondence with the terrestrial and celestial
realms to keep all three in harmony (note the neutral sounding tone
of this). This procedure has been described as centering, which used
to be the duty of the Son of Tian, the emperor. But it was also done
by all those who conducted state, ancestral, and life-cycle rites.
Daoists also engaged in similar practices.

In apocalypse, in the japanese version the axiom is refered to as
the great li / reason. Implying it as a kind of ordering structure of
reality. In nocturne any ordering structure that a new world was
based on was also referred to as li.

**Liturgy** is a term for the standard public worship format
performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy
represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred
through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication or
repentance. It forms a basis for establishing a relationship with a
 divine agency, as well as with other participants in the
liturgy. Obviously each side, regardless of its views on free
expression do have some degree of uniform expressions of liturgy.

**Lord** is used as a title of deference for various gods or
deities in various religions ranging from christianity, to hniduism,
to buddhism. Both law and chaos use it as a term, with law using the
term the lord to refer to god, and chaos referring to lucifer as the
demon lord. In japan lucifer is addressed as excellency.

**MA** is a syllable commonly found in words associated with motherhood worldwide, deriving from the sound infants make. In certain new age teachings it is considered the archetypical divine feminine name. Strange journey shows this as part of the names of many mother godesses, and mem aleph as the prototypical version. So this is not alignment specific, though its relevance is greater for chaos.

**Magatama** are curved beads that have been used in japan
since prehistoric times. They were originally made of things such as
clay, but later became made almost entirely from jade. While
originally ornamental they were later given more overt religious
significance. In the games both regular magatama show up, as well as
small insect like creatures called megatama that give peopel magical
abilities and turn them into demons.

**Magic** is defined in the games as the physical manifestation
of the caster's spirit energy. Not everyone can become good at magic,
but the demon summoning program can allow people to summon without
needing to be.

**Magic circle**. A magic circle is a circle (or sphere, field)
of space marked out by practitioners of many branches of ritual
magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a
sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or
both. It may be marked physically, drawn in salt or chalk, for
example, or merely visualised. They may also contain sigils inside.
They are seen being used by various figures involved in demon
summoning in the games. In overclocked, a member of the shomonkai says openly that traditional summoning involved a magic circle.

**Malas** are a traditional tool used in dharmic religions to count the number of times a mantra is recited, breaths while meditating, counting prostrations, or the repetitions of a buddha's name. They are similar to other forms of prayer beads used in various world religions and therefore the term "Buddhist rosary" also appears. Chaotic units are seen using these, but in addition certain law units have beads that seem to be a cross between a rosary and mala. There is also an item called amida beads sold in the neutral church that is presumably a mala.

**Mandala**. In addition to being associated with neutral, and with the cycle of rebirth, mandalas can also be used as powers. In iva maitreya uses something called the tokugawa mandala to seal demons, and later is seen using another seal that resembles a mandala. In iva there are items called yantra also.

**Manitou**, from soul hackers refersto the concept of a Great
Spirit or of the interconnection andbalance of nature or life in many
Algonqiuan Native American groups,similar to the concept of Brahman
in Hinduism. While Manitou itselfis based on the concept of a spirit
inhabiting all things - not onlypeople and animals, but plants,
stones, and even machines - thevillain itself appears to be based on
the "Otshee Manitou"or bad half of the spirit, while
Nemissa appears to be based on the"Aashaa Manitou" or good
half.  Manitou, in Algonquian, hasbeen translated as either
"spirit" or "god." Notethat in-game, manitou
itself the figure is depicted again as a kindof avatar of a larger
spiritual force, but it itself is depicted notas a villain but as a
near mindless force that was itself good(ish)but was used for bad
purposes turning it bad, and so which at the endwished to die to free
the human world of its harms. In-game little isexpanded on this in
terms of pantheism.

**Meditation** is a practice where an individual uses a
technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing their mind on a
particular object, thought or activity – to train attention and
awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and
stable state. The sides each have various approaches to meditation.

**Messiah** is a term in judaism and christianity for a deliverer originally of the jewish nation, but later seen as for the whole world. while the beleifs originally viewed it as a role that was more about literal fighting, it became seen as a more metaphysical one. While the term messiah is mainly associated with the messian church, occasionally it is used by other sides, or as a term for hero in general. With steven talking in apocalpse about messiahs coming from the axiom. Which is a description of observation empowering heroes when humanity desires them in general.

**Miracle**. A miracle is an event not explicable by natural or
scientific laws. Such an event may be attributed to a supernatural
being (especially a deity), magic, a miracle worker, a saint, or a
religious leader. While the term miracle does show up in the games at
times, being the name of one of yhvh's attacks, it is actually fairly
rare, and so the implication is that the idea of miracles is somewhat
downplayed. This being because seeing the spiritual beings as actual
beings you can interact with directly shifts the implications of how
you would see their power.

**Mitama** is a shinto term for a spirit, or the soul of a
deceased person. They have various attributes. The ara-mitama is the
rough and violent side of a spirit. A kami's first appearance is as
an ara-mitama, which must be pacified with appropriate pacification
rites and worship so that the nigi-mitama can appear. The mitama
shows up as an underlying essence of soul that can be used to enhance
demons.

**Moksha** in hinduism is the concept of liberation from
rebirth. In DDS2 seraph is liberated from rebirth at the end. And it
is presented in a hindu tone in keeping with the rest of the game.
Krishna's goals in apocalypse are also depicted as a kind of moksha.

**Monad** refers, in cosmogony, to the Supreme Being, divinity or the totality of all things. The concept was reportedly conceived by the Pythagoreans and may refer variously to a single source acting alone, or to an indivisible origin, or to both. It is a term used to describe the absolute when not personifying it in more explicitly divine language, normally when not seen as a personal god. In megaten this more abstract way of seeing the great will has some relevance. The term monad shows up as an optional final floor of tartarus in persona 3.

**Mu**, which means not have, without, or nothingness, is a key
concept in zen buddhism. In the english games they translated mu as
the void. It originally encompassed a kind of emptiness based answer
to questions, similar to the answer n/a, by saying that the question
can have no answer, because the question itself is in a sense empty.
Later it became associated with the concept of emptiness, and in
popular culture became a way to denote the void in japan. Since the
void was seen as a related concept to that of emptiness. It shows up
in nocturne where ahriman is said to be the god of the void, and in
devil survivor 2 where things that are erased become mu.

**Mysticism** has various definitions, but one is the belief
that union with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or the
spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect,
may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender. All the
sides have some aspects of mysticism in them. This often means
relating with god not as a follower, but a type of union of uniting
with or dissolving into god's essence in and of itself.

It was once said that "All the best mystics have been accused
of atheism." The reason for this has to do with the fact that
this kind of approach of uniting to the essence of the godhead
distinct from relating to it as a person has a kind of impersonal
quality to it. Some mystics even said that the godhead was "above"
the persons of god so to speak. And so the latter was relevant only
in a contingent matter.

**Naraka** is the buddhist term for the hell realms. While it
is not given significant religious significance as a term, in iv the
underground of mikado is referred to as naraku, (the japanese
pronunciation of naraka) and seen as the origin of demons, though not
in an ultimate sense.

**Necromancy** is a practice of magic involving communication
with the dead – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition
or raising them bodily. While various necromancers exist in the
games, a notable one is nebiros who shows up controlling the undead
at various times. Most notably in SMTI where he resurrects them as
bodyconians for the sake of alice.

**New age** refers to a modern theosophy and new thought inspired spiritual belief that centers around the coming age of aquarius, leading to a spiritual transformation. The tabletop games mention the coming age of aquarius explicitly.

**Occult science** was a term used to encompass the blending of spirituality and a scientific approach. The term originally was used for things like alchemy, but later was used to encompass beliefs about spirituality that denied it was miraculous, but saw the spirit world as something that could be studied scientifically. This understanding of the spirit worlds is a large aspect of the world in megaten.

**Omiki**. Sake is a japanese rice wine. In shinto it is often
given as an offering for kami. Sakes served to gods as offerings
prior to drinking are called *o-miki* or *miki*. People
drink Omiki with gods to communicate with them and to solicit rich
harvests the following year. In soul hackers this can be given to
demons to make them drunk.

**Omnism** is a term for the beleif in all religions. It is ambiguous, and can mean different things in different contexts however. In megaten of course there is an element of omnism in the sense that the figures of all relgions exist in some sense. This doesn't mean that every figure is positive however, but that megaten's omnism sees them as all on the same type of gradient that reflects similar things on a scale against eachother.

**Omnitheism** is related to omnism, and is the belief that all religions contain a core recognition of the same god. A version of this comes up in soul hackers 2 in that they talk about how the great one can be seen through the lens of various different religious traditions. With milady mentioning that the phantom society uses an abrahamic lens, but that there are other valid ones. In the wider sense, the games in general highlight how different perpectives can be different ways to percieve the same entities and struggles.

**Panthelism** is the view that the ultimate nature of reality is will. It is associated with schopenhauer who viewed this will as a detrimental aspect within reality that one must overcome. While all sides vaguely aknowledge the existence of the great will, only law tends to outright worship it. Chaos tends to have a more antagonistic approach, seeing it as tied to a cosmic order they need to overcome. While the ultimate may be will, it is not necessarily exclusively will, since it is also referred to as the li / axiom.

**Perennialism** is a perspective in modern spirituality that views all of the world's
religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin (known as **prisca theologia**)
from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown. How literally this is taken is left ambiguous. Megaten has vague aspects of this, tying the different religions to similar struggles and archetypes. And in an interview they talk about them as having a common origin. This is not taken infinitely literally, but does tie to them touching on similar struggles.

**Pilgrimage** refers to a journey undertaken for religious
reasons. The different groups have different versions of these at
times. One chaos unit is identified as a type of monk who goes on a
pilgrimage, and in Iv they say that the journey to mikado castle is a
pilgrimage.

**Plane** refers to an occult term for delineating different spiritual realms. Sometimes these are not literally different places, but different overlapping modes of being one can exist in in the same place. In an interview they explain the idea of planes as related to the different realities in the series. And games like raidou show how a demon place can exist even on earth that is seperate from the realm humans inhabit.

**Polytheism** is the belief that thereis more than one god. It
sometimes involves them arranged into ageneral collection or
interaction-system known as a pantheon. The sides in general all
obviously have aspects of this, due to all having multiple gods.
Though their dynamics all have more additional nuance.

**Possession** refers in christianity to when a demon takes
power over a person or place or object, forcing them to do crazy
seeming things. The process of undoing possession is called exorcism.
In strange journey your crew gets possessed by asura for a period,
and they talk about possession and exorcisms during then. Possession
is also mentioned at other times, like in devil survivor where amane
is possessed by jezebel.

**Postmodern religion** is a lens of viewing religion that sees it not as something that should be abolished, but rather something situational that historically reflected certain worldviews. Postmodern religion thus tends to reject the idea of a single overarching metanarrative, and upholds a diverse sense of interpretations of truth, ways of seeing, and emphasies that religious truth is highly individualistic.

This does not mean that there is no truth however, but that truth is influenced by and filtered through human constructed paradigms. The games have aspects of higlighting this in that gods are created by human structures, and sometimes even within the sides, where different gods on a side will refer to their ideology with different religious terminology. Nocturne also highlights the fact that different religious symbols do not have a set meaning, and so the meaning is capable of change.

**Practical kabbalah** refers to magic traditions that are kabbalically based. Obviously being an aspect of the series.

**Prayer** is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a
rapport with an object of worship, typically a deity,  through
deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an
act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity, or a
deified ancestor. More generally, prayer can also have the purpose of
thanksgiving or praise, and in comparative religion is closely
associated with more abstract forms of meditation and with charms or
spells. All of the sides do have prayer as part of their paradigm,
though the focus on the form of prayer of supplication is more tied
to law. Though not exclusively, due to chaos figures like virochana
answering prayers as well.

Supplication is a form of prayer, wherein one party humbly asks
another party to provide something either for themself or others. In
the visionary items for SMTI, law hero describes this as something he
wishes to be able to establish as something he could answer.
Depicting this kind of prayer as tied to lawful ideology in general,
and the existence of a system of protection that if it exists can
offer this kind of protection when requested. This is one of many
examples where the religious concepts intersect with the more
tangible ethical ones. Note the implication of protection being
granted to the weak. Something that is lawful in tone, and that chaos
would generally reject.

**Pre-adamism** is the theological belief that humans (or
intelligent yet non-human creatures) existed before the biblical
character Adam. Pre-adamism is therefore distinct from the
conventional Judeo-Christian belief that Adam was the first human.
For instance, in Islam, a common belief held that mankind is actually
the successor of other intelligent creatures such as Jinn and Hinn.
In megaten, humanity are not the first creatures who lived on earth,
due to previous worlds existing before them, and at times even prior
civilizations on their current world.

**Process theology** is a type of theology developed from Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy. While hard to define, some central elements are a focus on becoming over being. Generally stating that it is a facet of god to undergo change, rather than be a static eternal thing. According to Cobb, "process theology may refer to all forms of theology that emphasize event, occurrence, or becoming over substance. In this sense theology influenced by Hegel is process theology just as much as that influenced by Whitehead. The games' ontology does highlight process and change, with satan stating that change is a fundamental law of reality. And so ties to this overall approach. The fact that different gods emerging or having power over the world can fundamentally change the nature of the great will's manifest sense itself also ties to this.

**Prophecy** refers to religious visions of the future that are
obtained either through spiritual practice or divine revelation. The
various sides do have elements of prophecy at times. A notable one
being the prophecy of the end of the world seen in the scripture of
miroku.

**Providence**. In theology, divine providence, or just
providence, is God's intervention in the Universe. The term Divine
Providence (usually capitalized) is also used as a title of God. A
distinction is usually made between "general providence",
which refers to God's continuous upholding of the existence and
natural order of the Universe, and "special providence",
which refers to God's extraordinary intervention in the life of
people. Miracles generally fall in the latter category. Although this
term surprisingly doesn't get associated with the law side, in desu 2
it is associated with canopus, which is the cosmic ruler of reality.

**Prayer wheels** are wheels full of prayersspun by buddhists,
to increase praying effectiveness. In-game, anala drums seen in
nocturne, and on the face of brahman are closely based on them. They
seem to have some connection to the amala network which is seen as an
equivalent of real life networks as used by demons.

**Preternatural.** In modern usage, the concept of the
**supernatural** is often used as a term used to encompasses
anything that is inexplicable by scientific understanding of the laws
of nature but nevertheless argued by believers to exist. Examples
include immaterial beings such as angels, gods and spirits, and
claimed human abilities like magic, telekinesis and extrasensory
perception. However, in the middle ages the concept was divided into
the supernatural - a thing which is bound by no nature, and which the
term of was used exclusively for god, and the preternatural, which
although having a rare nature unlike that of man was nonetheless
bound by a nature.

An important thing to note about megaten is that in this sense
there is nothing truly supernatural in the sense of not being bound
by nature. Demons are seen as having a different or higher nature,
but this corresponds more to the concept of the preternatural.
In-game demons are still seen as having a nature that science can
theoretically understand. In strange journey you see people doing
science either on things from demonic worlds, or about demons
themselves. And in apocalypse, yhvh's universe is described using the
idea of brane cosmology. Showing that although it may use laws we
don't understand, everything is continuous with the natural. Notably
however, they do not explicitly use the term preternatural in game,
though the concept closely relates to it.

**Psychics**. A psychic is a person who claims to use
extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the
normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or
who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws.
Psychic abilities are acknowledged to exist, with the psy element,
and with the existence of psycho diver, but it is not clear what
differentiates them from any other magic.

**Radically Emergent Theism** (sometimes just called **emergent theism**, or has the word theism replaced with any other word it
leans towards) is the idea that there is no particular self existing
substance or thing that is god, but divinity is an emergent quality
the universe comes to have over time. This emerging quality of
spirituality feeds back into the world in the way mental phenomena
influence physical ones. God does not existin a substantial sense,
but there is an increasing deification of the world over time. God is
the whole world possessing the quality of deity. Where world is body
and deity is mind. Samuel alexander defends a concept where once there
was no god but now there is only partly god. And that there may be a
more full embodiment of God in the future. The finite god gathers up
into its divine parts its whole body. And so god is an emergent
property, or perhaps verb, ratherthan something that inherently
exists.

Obviously some aspects of this line of thought show up in megaten.
For one, the actual gods are seen as emanating from human minds in
their tangible forms. (Though the games are inconsistent about this.
In some games it is also explicitly clear that humans were created by
gods). With explicit statements that they will always exist as long as
humans do. (obviously calling to mind specific mental images coming
from jung's vague archetypes). Note that the game describes the arising of yhvh as something that allowed the great will to be worshipped. Which implies that in its primal state it wasn't as directly equated to a god. Which can
potentially imply that its divinity relevant aspects are dependent on
people. So if divinity is relative to the internal perspectives of
people, then it is in a sense emerging.

**Ragnarok** in norse mythology is a series of events and battles that ultimately ends with the human world being covered in water, leaving very few survivors even among the gods. In SMTI the events have a tone of calling norse ragnarok to mind too, since thor is on the law side, ans surtr on the chaos side. So polytheistic eschatological events are at play here also.

**Rebirth** can either be literal in terms of being a synonym of reincarnation or ressurection, or it could also be metaphorical to imply entering a new state. The games occasionally talk about you being spiritually reborn. Most notably for tde.

**Reincarnation** refers to the spirit of entities traveling
and being born in a new body after death. It is a common belief in
dharmic religions, but shows up in other beliefs such as the kabbalah
as well. It is obviously a universal facet of the megaten universe.
The series also uses the term **metempsychosis** or **transmigration**
for this idea. Notably however, in-game certain demons also use the
term reincarnation as a synonym for resurrection. Note that in the hindu religion humans are not the only ones who are reborn. The universe takes place during something called the day of brahma, after which even brahma himself dies and is born again in the new world.

**Reincarnationism** or **biblical reincarnation** is the belief that certain people are or can be reincarnations of biblical figures. This is of course literally true in the games, such as with abel in devil survivor.

**Religious ecstasy** is a type of altered state of consciousness
 characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded
interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by
visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. Since the sides all have a tone of mysticism, religious ecstacy is likely tied to them at times.

**Religious existentialism** refers to applying the idea of
existentialism to religious questions, or taking it in a religious
angle. The games take place at a point after where most people
realize that gods cannot be counted on to be fully good beings. And
so there is no default path in life, and you are bound to make
choices for yourself. And so the choices you make in essence define
what a god is to you.

**Resurrection** is when an entity comes back to life after
death with their identity preserved to most of a degree. While
reincarnation exists in the series, some entities are reborn with
their identity intact. While law hero was resurrected as part of
becoming the messiah, notably no large significance was placed on
this fact. In general, the downplaying of jesus in the messian church
changes the connotations away from a theology that heavily involves
jesus' death and ressurection. In the games resurrection as a term is
often lumped in with reincarnation.

**Revelation** refers to when truths about reality or about
spiritual worlds are passed down to humans by spiritual beings. It is
a common facet of the sides.

**Sacred spring**. A holy well or sacred spring is a spring or
other small body of water revered either in a Christian or pagan
context, sometimes both. The term *holy well* is commonly
employed to refer to any water source of limited size (i.e. not a
lake or river, but including pools and natural springs and seeps),
which has some significance in the folklore of the area where it is
located. In SMTII once you get to makai the churches are replaced
with seemingly sacred springs of this nature. Though notably, despite
being in makai they exist for multiple alignments. Even though makai
is ruled by lucifer and most of the major gods in it loosely support
chaos it should be noted that not everyone in it is chaos aligned.

**Sacrifice** refers to something that is given in exchange for
either power, or as a gift to spirits. In megaten, sacrificing
entities is seen as an actual way to get power, and so sometimes
entities either sacrifice others or even themselves to accomplish
certain goods. Sometimes demons refer to fusion as a kind of
sacrifice since they give their personal identity to become a part of
a larger being.

**Sadhu**. A sadhu is a religious ascetic, mendicant (monk) or any holy person in Hinduism who has renounced the worldly life. It shows up as an enemy in if...

**Samsara** refers to the cycle of reincarnation in dharmic
religions. the cycle of reincarnation is seen as a thing that defines
how reincarnations work in the games. Karma is seen as a large facet
of it, with karma being a thing that effects your future births. This
is likewise the case in megaten, though with it left ambiguous how
much it changes. Distinct from dharmic religions however is the fact
that in megaten there is no permanent solution to samsara, it being
just the unfolding of reality itself. All solutions are contingent
and can theoretically be undone.

**Sangaku shinko** is a term in shinto for the concept of the veneration of mountains, based on the idea that they are a sacred space which is the home of kami or ancestors. It is a large facet of shugendo, with shugendo practitioners livig in mountains for this reason. Although subtle, the idea of sacred mountains do show up in the games a bit, such as with en no uzuno talking about training there, or the kuzuryu's body being one.

**Sankhara** is a buddhist term that means something like
"formations," but with connotations both of being the thing
forming and the thing formed. Sankara is a term that refers to
conditioned existence, primarily that of mental structures. But it
has a double meaning where it also means the formations of the world.
with the implication that they are to some degree constructed by
mind. And this underlies the buddhist teaching that the mind is what
shapes the world. This relates heavily to the western concept of
phenomenology.

Although the term sankhara is never used, this understanding is a
major facet of the games, and their use of it is heavily inspired by
buddhism. With the words observation / cognition being a close
analogue to the idea of mental factors / formations. In the games,
the human mind shapes aspects of the world in a literal sense, even
empowering gods and changing metaphysical aspects of reality. This is
a fact of the series in general, and of course so is an understanding
that all the sides share. Although oftentimes it is only the higher
up beings who are aware of this. Notably though, buddhism holds this
idea as a description of what binds you in the world, and as
something to overcome. But megaten inverts it, saying that this
malleability is the source of human potential.

An interesting thing about mental formations in buddhism is that they also highlight that different beings percieve the world differently. Gods see water as nectar, and pretas see it as blood. High gods see no physical world at all. Total freedom involving liberating yourself from all worlds. Likewise the different realms of the gods actually correspond to different mind-states. When you reincarnate, every fixed plane that one arrives at
is associated with a existential situation that one has assumed. This conflation of formations representing existential nature, and demon realms being a heavy inspiration for megaten.

**Sephirot or “spheres”** are the revealed aspects of god's
attributes that represent them in a differentiated form, rather than
as the unified infinity. They are both spiritual aspects that compose
the revealed body of god, as well as moral properties seen as
inherentin the world itself, and which are parts of God that you
interactwith by being moral. And being represented as spheres is most
likelythe inspiration for the appearance of the avatars of yhvh in
II.

**Shamanism** is a practice that involves a practitioner
reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and
interact with what they believe to be a spirit world and channel
these transcendental energies into this world. The most notable
example of this is the cyber shaman in dds2.

**Shide** in shinto is a zigzag-shaped paper streamer, often
seen attached to **shimenawa** or **tamagushi**, and used in Shinto
rituals. A popular ritual is using a **haraegushi**, or "lightning
wand", named for the zig-zag shide paper that adorns the wand. A
similar wand, used by miko for purification and blessing, is the
**gohei** with two shide. You see shide in the neutral and chaotic
churches in the early games, and occasionally used by various
figures.

**Sigil**. A sigil is an inscribed or painted symbol considered
to have magical power. They are considered to be a major basis used
for summoning, and which the summoning program seems to make use of.

**Spiritual evolution** is the idea of spiritual growth not merely on the individual level through a static set of stages, but on some kind of big picture level, where even the spiritual nature of humanity or reality can undergo changes. This could imply humanity getting acess to higher spiritual planes, or even new spiritual realities being created over time. Spiritual evolution provides an important context for the games, talking about how the development of human thought gives rise to new gods. And that this can continue on to even new forms of divinity in the future.

**Spiritual growth** is a term for development along a path towards specific spiritual goals. This tends to have an ambiguous definition due to the goals of spirituality being defined differenly by different groups. The groups in megaten of course all highlight these concepts in varying ways. In IV you are told that your spiritual powers should have grown after defeating demiurge.

**Styx**. In Greek mythology, Styx is a river that forms the
boundary between Earth and the Underworld. The ferryman is a figure
named **charon** who would bring you to the other side. In most
mainline megaten games, the river, and charon with it are what one
sees when moving on to the afterlife. This river does not seem to
lead to any specific realm however, merely leading your soul to rest
until it incarnates in another place.

**Son of man** is an expression in the sayings of Jesus in
Christian writings, including the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles
and the Book of Revelation. The meaning of the expression is
ambiguous however. Interpretation of the use of "the Son of man"
in the New Testament has remained challenging and after 150 years of
debate no consensus on the issue has emerged among scholars. In the
games, both demons and angels use it as a term for humans.

**Soul** is the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being
or animal, regarded as immortal. Many of the games mention or show
souls. Interestingly, the idea of the soul normally notes a discrete
stable self. But this is not how selves work in the games, with the
games having a more eastern approach where the selves are a
collection of aggregates. But it is still called a soul while it
remains relatively stable. Though notably, someone born with the same
soul can still become a very different person.

**Summoning** is a thing that exists in various religious or
spiritual beliefs, and is obviously a major part of the game. Various
religious have forms of summoning, though some such as christianity
ban it outright, saying that it is always a pathway to evil.

Kabbalah implies that demons, far from being something one must
avoid at all costs as implied in christianity are things it is
possible to even capture and put into one's service. Archangel
Michael was said to have given king solomon a ring which gave him
power to summon  and control demons. And that he used their
power to build the temple. And this is what later demon summoning
grimoires often reference, and why holy names are used to bind them.
Demons are seen as able to be used to produce agreeable results when
humans have power over them at times, but it can turn bad if the
demons get power over humans. This parallels in game the fact that
using demon summoning is not in itself considered bad, but a world
ruled by demons is implied to have much strife for humanity. One who
knew a demon's seal could at times summon them against the demon's
will, and attempt to bind them to particular tasks. Which is in
keeping with similarities to how it is presented in-game.

Demon summoning, or other white magic in general, despite not
being explicitly forbidden was declared to be restricted only to
virtuous individuals, and only in times of need and for public rather
than personal benefit. Note how entities on the law side are
sometimes told that it is okay for them to continue using demons, but
that people generally should not do so, and they are only to do so
due to accomplish the task. For instance, in amane's ending in the
eighth day of overclocked, their use is restricted to people working
for the messiah, and even then only until the task is done. And in
strange journey you are told it is okay due to your saintly nature.

**Synchronicity** is a concept firstexplained by psychiatrist
Carl Jung, which holds that events are"meaningful coincidences"
if they occur with no causalrelationship, yet seem to be meaningfully
related. This doesn'trelate to his main psychological points very
closely, but issomething he explained in a way that implies he
thought it might besimilar to his archetypes. Basically, ESP and
various psychic thingslike it were commonly accepted in jung's time.
And he tried to dispelthe idea of them being totally mystical by
saying that meaningfulcoincidences can happen based on patterns in
reality that things flowdown that can result in similar patterns
showing up in differentplaces. However, despite being an attempt to
be more down to earthand logical, he did take this in a little bit
more sketchy angle thanwe would now say it makes sense to go in.

In record breaker, you walkin to fumi doing an experiment right
when she says she needs you, andshe asks herself if it was
synchronicity that you happened to walk inwhen you were needed. It is
also part of the title of synchronicity prologue. The idea of
synchronicity can also be used to explain how different universes
tend to have similar archetypes and the same struggles going on
within them. Being similarly based on the idea of patterns in reality
causing related events to happen without causal connection.

**Syncretism** is the combining of different beliefs, while
blending practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves
the merging or assimilation  of several originally discrete
traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion,
thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive
approach to other faiths.

**Tablet of Destinies** in babylonain religion was envisaged as a clay tablet inscribed with
 cuneiform writing, also impressed with cylinder seals, which, as a
permanent legal document, conferred upon the god who held it supreme authority over the universe. Many of the stories of babylonian religion revolve around the struggle over the tablet, with it ultimately falling in the hands of marduk. In SMTIV it shows up as an item called the tablet of heaven's will,
being something that the protagonist is sent by pabilsag to retrieve for his
father enlil. Though little detail is gone into it over its significance. Being mere side beings, the tablet obviouly is not the mark of supreme authority over all gods in the iv universe.

**Tarot** refers to a pack of playing cards originally used for
games, but which was later used for divination. Tarot readings show up
in persona, though aren't a feature of mainline. Various entities referencing tarot card show up in mtii, such as the sword, coin, wand, and cup knights. And the hanged man is an enemy in smtII.

**Techno-animism** is a blending of religion and technology in a way that gives technological things religious significance. This was popularized as an idea in japan, due to japanese animism being something that can give theoretically any object religious significance, making the blurring with technology an easy leap. In megaten, computers are used to interface with spiritual beings, and later on it describes this as tied to the fact that reality itself is made of data. So it gives a religious tone for the use of it.

**Thaumaturgy** is the capability of a magician to work magic or other paranormal events or a saint to perform miracles. In essence, an esoteric term for any kind of supernatural power. While the term became over time associated with esoteric traditions, the term thaumaturge was originally used for christian saints known for miracles.

**The Akashic Records** from Devil survivor II comes from In
theosophy and anthroposophy, the Akashic records are a compendium of
thoughts, events, and emotions believed by theosophists to be encoded
in a non-physical plane of existence known as the astral plane. The
game also says the world is bound by akasha's chains. And the akashic stratum and record show up as the place lived in by polaris, and which has control over the world.

**The logos**, also known as **the word** is a concept from greek philosophy that later entered into hellenistic judaism and christianity of an ordering principle of reality that upholds its internal logic. Philo wrote that "the Logos of the living God is the bond of everything, holding all things together and binding all the parts, and prevents them from being dissolved and separated". And it was seen as god's instrument in creating the universe, and sometimes also as an entity, bridging god and reality. In christianity it is associated with jesus. In last bible, you are told that the kabbalic shattering of the vessels gave rise to the word, which is an ordering principle of reality that differentiates self from other, life from death, victory from defeat, etc.

**The Number of the Beast** is a term in the Book of
Revelation, of the New Testament, that is associated with the Beast
of Revelation in chapter 13.  In most manuscripts of the New
Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the
beast is 666, though some early manuscripts have it as 616. Many
scholars consider the number to be an apocalyptic take on the actions
of the emperor nero. While the number of the beast does show up in
megaten, it strangely shows up at seemingly random times. Like the
year that en no ozuno meets his servants is 666. And of course crowley also has 666 on his outfit. Satan has six each
of various things despite being law, and the tower of kagutsuchi has
666 as the second to last floor. The significance of satan having it despite being on the law side tying to conspiracy theories about the west or america or the united nations as occult and as the beast.

**Theopaschism** is the belief that a god can suffer. Although it is a fairly abstract idea not super interesting on its own, its worth noting the scene in strange journey where the crew starts to consider more that demons can be victims for the first time. And the fact that in many of the games characters often gloss over this reality.

**Theophany** is the physical manifestation of a god to
humanity. Notably, before the demon invasion this was implied to be
more rare. In the case of some, it is because they are kept sealed,
but for others it is because they want to maintain the human world
as-is, or have long term plans of slow maneuvering. However, it was
implied to be more common before modern day, with the advent of
humans becoming divorced from nature and less spiritual shifting the
presence of the incarnations.

**Theopoetics** is a postmodern approach to theology that posits that instead of trying to develop a "scientific" theory of God, as systematic theology attempts, theologians should instead try to find God through poetic articulations of their lived ("embodied") experiences. Meaning that instead of approaching theology as an abstract lawbook, it should be focused on the tangible experiential aspect as it influences humans. While this does not inherently call into question the idea of literal religion, it lends itself more to the idea of religious existentialism, and the idea of constructed spiritualities as the meaning is embodied in human experience. This obviously being closely related to the jungian aspects the series draws on.

**The seven deadly sins**, also known as the **capital vices**
or **cardinal sins**, is a grouping and classification of vices of
Christian origin. Behaviors or habits are classified under this
category if they directly give birth to other immoralities. According
to the standard list, they are **pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony,**
wrath, **and** sloth**, which are also contrary to the seven**
virtues. These sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive
versions of one's natural faculties or passions (for example,
gluttony abuses one's desire to eat). Historically there would
sometimes be two more, those being vanity / **vainglory**, which
is unjustified boasting, and **acedia**, which is is the neglect
to take care of something that one should do.

In iva, there are some jars containing some of the deadly sins
that push them into anyone who gets too close. And in SJ, the first
few areas may be depicted as based on them. Interestingly, all the
games tend to use an arbitrary amount of them, never depicting
exactly seven. Interestingly, this concept isn't given any
association with the law side, instead merely being a general
depiction of corrupt dispositions.

**The tree of life** in kabbalah, is a classic descriptive term
for the central mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah, and is composed
of the 10 Sephirot. These sephirot are seen as aspects of god that
represent his holiness, and are associated with ten virtues. The tree
of life is seen as existing in all reality, in a kind of fractal
pattern, where it is reflected inside itself. The tree of life is the
emanation of the right side of the ein sof, and on its opposite is
the tree of death and the qliphoth, the emanation of the left side,
which represents vices and "shells" or "veils" of
the light of the sephiroth. The symbol itself is seen when merkabah
and lucifer fuse in iva. Note that the avatars of god are alsoshown
as spheres in-game, which is to relate them to the sephirot. This is
because the sephirot are directly seen as aspects of god. The abyss
is also structured based around it, showing that it is a shared
symbol.

**The World Soul** is, according to several systems of thought,
an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, which
relates to our world in much the same way as the soul is connected to
the human body. The idea originated with Plato and was an important
component of most Neoplatonic systems. although the term is somewhat considered outdated in philosophy, due to philosophy downplaying use
of the world soul, it is still a concept in religion and an offhanded
term that is used, because the idea of mind existing in some abstract
way on the global level is still meaningful. Obviously in a generic
enough sense, this is more or less what the great will is. Since its
anabstract type of universal collective overmind in some sense,
but doesn't seem very independently sentient, much like how world
souls are generally (though not exclusively) seen not to be.

**The third eye** (also called the **mind's eye**, or **inner**
eye**) is a mystical and esoteric concept of a speculative**
invisible eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight.
Various sides show figures with a third eye in reference to this.
Such as satan, or mem aleph. And of course many dharmic figures on
chaos who are seen with it in their own religions.

**The** **Trimurti** is the Triple deity of supreme divinity
in Hinduism in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance,
and destruction are personified as a triad of deities, typically
Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.
Law and chaos themselves are associated with the concept of
maintenance and destruction. As well as vishnu / krishna being law
leaning generally, and shiva being chaos leaning. Notably of course,
only the neutral perspective sees these sides as something that
should work in harmony rather than opposed forces.

**Thoughtforms** and **Egregores**. A thoughtform is an esoteric concept, also known as a tulpa or in some contexts an egregore, and based on the earlier Vajrayana concept of the emanation body. A thought-form is a form shaped in some way by human thought, but which obtains a more tangible reality as an external spiritual force. The idea of the thoughtform was developed in theosophy, but later became a more ubiquitous esoteric concept.

Thought-Forms, as originally defined were divided into three classes: forms in the shape of the person who creates them, forms that resemble objects or people and may become ensouled by nature spirits or by the dead, and forms that represent inherent qualities from the astral or mental planes, such as emotions. In terms of megaten, the second of these is the most important, with the third also being relevant.

In megaten, demons are described as being thoughtforms to a degree, in that the forms humans see of them are shaped to a degree by human thoughts. This doesn't mean that humans have full control over them however, and to what degree they still exist outside of human perception is left deliberately ambiguous. Humans mentally shape the archetypes they appear as to humans, and then some intangible and from the human perspective indefinable essence of spirit will fill it to give it a tangible appearance in human perception. With some games like strange journey using blue squares to show that when not made tangible, demons appear to humans as a relatively meaningless shape.

The term egregore in particular is a specific form of thoughtform that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people. Originally, the concept referred to angelic beings, or watchers, and the specific rituals and practices associated with them, namely within Enochian traditions. But in modern fay the term has been purposed to refer to a thoughtform associated with a group that has a common motivation. One that becomes tangible, being made up of, and influencing the thoughts of the group. The symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult concepts of the corporation (as a juridical person or legal entity) and the meme.

In terms of megaten, this is closer to being the more specific form of thought form that is relevant, because demon archetypes are implied to be shaped by the thoughts not of any given individual, but by the thoughts of many people coalescing together. And may indeed represent the groups that give rise to them. Although some represent more manifestations of abstracts and parts of nature, representing not human ideals, but human perceptions on external things. And similar to the concept of the egregore, they become in a dynamic relationship with humans, affecting humans in turn as humans effect them. Individual demons may also be dissatisfied with the form they manifest as, and seek another one, or even be viewed as different forms by different people. (note that if we are talking about personas rather than demons, it is often depicted as a thought form shaped by only the one whose persona it is).

This isn't however to say that demons are totally bound by human whims, or should be seen as only a human epiphenomenon. As stated above, in what sense they exist outside of human perception is left ambiguous, but they do have external lives, and some are stated to not bother appearing in the human world at all, being less affected by human thoughts in turn. So while human thoughts influence their nature and power on earth, and even to a degree in the demon realm, the degree outside of human perception is left ambiguous by design.

While the esoteric concept of thoughtforms does draw on jungian archetypes, and the games also do so explicitly, it is worth noting that the form of this idea that shows up in fiction is not just made up by writers as a metaphor for groups, but as shown, draws on actual modern esoteric teachings. These teachings to a degree had their origins in negative theology, and the idea that the divine is beyond comprehension, and that how one sees it is a limited manifestation. This evolved to the idea that different levels of human spiritual growth can see different forms of divinity, and eventually to the idea that human psychology and its limits may shape it in all sorts of cultural ways.

At a glance, it might seem odd for actual spiritual teachings to posit that human religion changing can change tangible divine manifestations, but this was born in part to account for variations of religions belief in different cultures, accommodating the idea that all of these were interacting with tangible divinity in different forms. So this accommodates both the idea that the human perception is limited, and so introduces a “subjective” element to spirituality, as well as the idea of spiritual evolution, which can posit that humans can evolve to higher forms over time. Which is something alluded to by the games themselves, albeit indirectly, in nozomi complaining about yhvh preventing the birth of new gods, by seeking to remain as a static unchanging form that blocks out the possibility of human development moving past it.

**Transpolytheism** refers to thesubset of transtheism in which
tangible gods exist, but are notnecessarily the highest divine
reality in their world. More generallyit can refer to any belief in
which gods exist, but at some point, orin general one can move past
need for reliance on them explicitly.This word was coined to refer to
certain religions like buddhism andjainism to avoid people
incorrectly defining them as non-theistic, byhighlighting that even
though at some point you may move pastreliance on them, polytheistic
gods do still exist in those systems.Likewise, it can also refer to
beliefs like stoicism which have anexplicitly sentient pantheistic
god, and posits that polytheisticgods probably (but may not) exist,
but that you need not focus onthis. Or epicureanism which holds that
gods exist, but have norelation with earth, and so your only need to
think about them isreflection on their nature. (Note that many
transtheistic systemsoverlap with some kind of pantheism or ultimism
anyways. Making itultimately more about that in many cases,).

This obviously has a lot of relevance for megaten, since in many
ways it is a core aspect of its worldview as understood by all the
sides. Polytheistic gods are seen as existing, and not unimportant,
but are something that you can move past explicit need to rely on in a
literal sense. And which the religions can still function without the
explicit need for. In a metaphorical sense, if you interpret its gods
as archetypes that are not literal, it more closely resembles
tillich's transtheism as well, as you can make sense of the ideas of
the religions as symbols to point to the inner divinity of reality
rather than as literal. Yet this does not decrease from the use of the
religions. Note also that this can explain why neutral has a latent
spirituality even when it focuses on humanity and downplaying of the
sentient gods. Since it isnot necessarily depicting it as atheistic
in the sense of denying spirituality altogether, but depicting the
sentient gods as mere other entities in the larger reality. One which
one can theoretically relate to the spiritual aspects of directly
without need for these entities. And likewise, neutral often deifies
humans in their place, and so still does have a use for gods.

**Transtheism** is a word for a widescale of beliefs. Its most
simple definition is that it applies toany beliefs that in some way
go beyond a simple theist / atheistdichotomy altogether, being in
some way between them ambiguously. Andthus can be considered an word
for intermediary type positions. Thiscan include beliefs such as paul
tillich's which have a concept ofgod as the ground of being that he
calls the god above god, which ispanentheistic in concept, but which
is placed in a trans-theisticlocation due to the fact that he
understands that some would notconsider this explicitly theistic. And
while he considers it toqualify for meaningful definitions of the
project of theism, he doesnot think that the “point” is whether
or not it counts as a god.Tillich believes that we moved past the
point when we can rely on theexplicit existence of a sentient god.
And so while one may exist, weneed to look past this. “god above
god” refers to the abstractaspects of the properties of divinity
that we can more definitivelyhave faith in, and which he says once
you refocus towards it willdiminish the relevance in terms of
religious practice as to whether atangible sentient god exists.

Transtheism is also used often as adiffering term for forms of
panentheism or ultimism that focus lesson the nature of god as
identified with the universe, but as it as aconcept in general. (For
more information about that check out paultillich on the heterodox
christianity page). Transtheism can also beused for the related
positions of worldviews that contain gods, butwhich the gods are not
considered the highest spiritual reality, orultimately what you are
answerable to.

**Ultimism** or **Ietsism** is an unspecified belief in an
undetermined transcendent reality. Ultimism, as J L Schellenberg
defines it, is more general than other religious ‘isms’ – it is
the proposition that *something* is ultimate in the nature of
things, ultimately valuable, and the source of our ultimate good, but
the details of that something it leaves open. Ietsism is a dutch word
that encompasses that same concept. Some approaches to the ambiguity
of the axiom relate to this concept, due to it being seen as in some
sense indefinable even to gods, but as providing the basis for
religious views.

**Vision quest**. A vision quest is a rite of passage in some
Native American cultures. It is usually only undertaken by young
males entering adulthood. It is a spiritual journey undertaken via
visions. It shows up as a major plot element in soul hackers.

**Yuga** in Hinduism is an epoch or era within a four-age cycle. A complete Yuga starts with the Satya Yuga, via Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga into a Kali Yuga. At the end of kali yuga the world ends, and is ultimately reborn. Buddhism has a similar view of the world, save that in hinduism shiva tends to end the world, and in buddhism it ends due to the arising of seven suns that burn it up. This concept of the world's cyclical death and birth and the similar death and birth of individuals tie to the way worlds are seen in game. All worlds eventually end, and the energy of them tends to give birth to new worlds. Noticably however, in megaten there is no set in stone fatalistic date when this end will happen the way there is in dharmic religions. It can be extended or happen early based on the actions of those in the worlds.

## Other sides

**The white** are based on the great white
brotherhood and the idea of ascended masters. Their view that all
reality is suffering and that the only escape is oblivion may also be
a more extreme interpretation of paranirvana. They also talk about emptiness, highlighting the underlying empty nature of the world from which you emerged.

**Krishna** emphasizes the hindu concept of
moksha, wanting to liberate everyone from rebirth by having them
merge with him to some degree. He also refers to the hindu concept of
maya, by refering to your party as illusions. He references the idea
of salvation when referring to his idea of moksha. And of course
intends to use a cosmic egg to make the new world.

**Maitreya** is a buddhist figure who
describes morality in terms of dharma, and by extension highlights
the idea of karma. He also tells people that their final goal should
be that of paranirvana. And emphasizes the lack of clinging, interpreted
similar to dagda's emphasis on not clinging to friends.

**Shijima** is based heavily on buddhism,
with hikawa being said to have been a gaian before betraying them,
though they considered him heretical. It is based on specifically
the buddhist aspects of upekkha and
dispassion, as well as emptiness. It also highlights the buddhist
idea of mu, which is translated into english as the void. Its figures call to mind the mithraic mysteries cults from rome, since it uses designs from there for its demons, and its loose drawing on aspecs of zoroastrianism.

**Yosuga** despite having an angelic theme
has very little in the way of explicit religious content, besides
things like an offhand line about passing judgement. The mantra whom
they derive from do have a few buddhist attributes however, such as
the literal use of mantra in their name, lotus position, etc.

**The center**. While the center, by being
a messian structure shares many of the attributes of the normal law
side, notably they drop the aspects that tie to restoring the
original eden or getting rid of knowledge of good and evil. They are
also seen as following many false gods, since they uphold chaos
demons in high positions and ultimately have a literal false yhvh
leading them.

**Virocana** is a figure in II who works for chaos. While many of his views seem to in general align with chaos, he has the additional aspect of seeming to focus on the buddhist concept of pure lands. Saying that he offers salvation to all who follow him, regardless of their karma.

**The shomonkai** are a group in devil survivor that has a tone that comes off like a japanese christian cult. In practice a central focus of theirs revolves around devil worship. This being because while their god belberith is seen as a necessary tool to help free them from yhvh, the founder acknowledges that belberith is not particularly a good being. Underlying this is an element of religious humanism, where the ultimate goal is a world free from yhvh. They seem to have some aescetic practices, since amane talks about how her father taught her to be emotionless. Notably, what the group develops into after the defeat of belberith is shaped heavily by what ending you are on.

**Dagda**. While dagda's overall path is difficult to delineate and tends to not use much religious language, one thing that can loosely be comapred with it is transcendentalism. Transcendentalism believes that society corrupts the purity of the individual, and that individuals are at their best when self reliant. Viewing spirituality in individual and nature oriented lights. Dagda's path also has an element of paranirvana with the gods themselves some of whom seek to lose their distinct existences. And it is largely autotheistic, with danu even saying that it would make humans into their own gods.

**Digital devil saga** as a whole is based
on hinduism, and draws heavily from its concepts, though has some additional ones as well. The world in
general is described with the concept of brahman, and your actions
are seen as generating karma. Morality is described as dharma by
vishnu in it, and immorality as adharma. Chakras show up in the
junkyard to highlight the concept of growth, and ultimate liberation
is described as moksha. Though the junkyard is also called purgatory,
and the normal world nirvana. The trimurti is seen in the final area
of the sun, though only as side bosses. And the sun itself being a spiritual realm resembles the idea of the great central sun.

**Record breaker** notably downplays the
religious elements for its sides, focusing more on secular ethical
language. In general however, the game itself has a tone of astrology
feeding through its sides, based on the ideas of cardinal, fixed, and
mutable. And anguished one's route in the first campaign has a tone
of luciferianism, with him being a prometheus-like figure, and unlocks lucifer in his fate event. Though
notably it does not have a satanic tone. The concept of mu,
translated into english as the void is also brought up.