PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 5: Aeona and Tana

(A/N: The lore regarding Aeona and Tana was heavily modified in the NEXT update, which significantly revamped many storylines in the Arcane River, including Esfera. For the sake of providing context, I’ll include some notes later in this section detailing what the original lore used to be.)

In the Radiant Temple on Grandis, two twin girls were brought before the Executors, a minor race who served the Transcendent of Light, with their names and forms taken away in exchange for new bodies of light and darkness. The twins were presented before an Executor of Light and an Executor of Darkness, who instructed the girls to create with the power of light, and to destroy with the power of darkness. One of the girls then used the power of darkness to destroy a tombstone floating before her, with the other girl using the power of light to recreate it.

The Executors them declared that there were two forces and two candidates before them, with the twins noting that there was darkness because there was light, and that there was light because there was darkness. The girl wielding light then asked her sister whether they were also like that, to which her sister noted that though it wasn’t possible, it didn’t matter, as they could not coexist together, as that was the fate of the Transcendent of Light.

The Executor of Darkness then declared that destiny would soon be decided, while the Executor of Light wondered which of the two candidates would be chosen. Suddenly, both girls began to hear the voice of the Overseers in their heads, thus beginning the selection. The Executors told the two girls that the one who would not be chosen at the end of the selection would be known as Tana, while the chosen one would be known as Aeona.

The two girls then battled against each other with their two powers of light and darkness, with the girl wielding light eventually slaying her sister. As she emerged victorious, the girl noted to herself that just as light and darkness were one, she and her sister were destined to embark on the same path, despite having different powers, believing that it may have all been planned. Standing over her sister’s body, the girl began wondering where it had all gone wrong, as she and her sister had not been allowed to coexist.

The Executors then declared that the girl wielding light would be known as Aeona, the Transcendent of Light. Having been granted her title, Aeona began to feel the power of the Transcendent flooding into her. As she did, she began to hear the voice of the Overseers, which she noted was beautiful yet cold, and realized that she could not refuse its call. Realizing that she was now shackled to the Overseers’ destiny for her, Aeona refused to accept her fate and left the Radiant Temple, rejecting her title as ‘Aeona’ and taking on the title of ‘Tana’ - the one who was not chosen for the Transcendent’s destiny - as a sign of her rebellion that she refused to accept the destiny forced upon her by the Overseers.

With her chosen name, Tana became a vagabond who wandered all across Grandis. No matter where she went, however, Tana could still feel the chains placed upon her by the Overseers, realizing that those chains could never be broken. At one point, it was rumored that Tana had faced Gerand Darmoor in battle, though the validity of these rumors remained unknown. As she attempted to escape the will of the world, Tana felt the beautiful yet cold voice in her head that constricted her tightly enough that she felt dizzy and disoriented. However, Tana declared that things wouldn’t go as planned and vowed to live as herself no matter what, even if the price was to lose everything that she had.

Eventually, the Black Mage - detecting Tana’s presence - reached out to her within her dreams and offered to help her escape her destiny. A surprised Tana asked the Black Mage whether he could really give her what she wanted, as she noted that escaping the will of the world was something that not even he could accomplish, as he, too, a Transcendent bound by the Overseers’ chains. However, the Black Mage revealed to her that he planned to change destiny by combining the powers of light and darkness in order to create a new world without Transcendents. Realizing that the Black Mage’s plan would put an end to her painful life in bondage, Tana agreed to help him with his plan, for which he instructed her to go to Kritias in Maple World.

(A/N: In the original lore for Aeona and Tana, there was originally no selection ceremony to choose the Transcendent. Instead, it was Tana’s sister - the girl wielding darkness - who was chosen as Aeona, while Tana was passed over as a Transcendent-in-reserve. The original lore revealed that the awakened Transcendent of Light could only wield one of the two powers, while the other power was given to the reserve to hold. Because Aeona had awakened with the power of darkness, Tana had been given the power of light.

Over time, Aeona was forced to comply with the Overseers’ will and committed mass genocide of over seven races on Grandis for unknown reasons. As Tana couldn’t hear the Overseers’ voices, she mistakenly concluded that her sister had gone mad with power, for which she fought and killed Aeona. Because Tana was a Transcendent-in-reserve, Aeona’s death meant that Tana awakened as the new Transcendent of Light, receiving the title of Aeona in the process. After hearing the Overseers’ voice and their chains attempting to force her to comply with their orders, Tana refused her title as Aeona and left Grandis in order to find a way to escape her destiny.

The part about the Black Mage asking Tana to come to Kritias originally didn’t exist, and it remained unaddressed exactly how and why she came to Maple World, although the rumors about her fighting Darmoor is something that still existed, even before the revamp. The old lore about the Transcendent of Light came with some plot holes, such as the lack of explanation about the Black Mage’s reserve (speculated to be Luminous), as well as how Tana could have killed Aeona when she was just a mortal.

Although the Esfera revamp does explicitly acknowledge that there are some questions about the Transcendent of Light’s lore that the writers have deliberately chosen to keep a mystery for the time being, our current understanding of it is that light and darkness are opposite, yet equal powers, and that their coexistence doesn’t inherently upset the balance. This can be seen in the case of Luminous, who can wield the power of light and darkness together in order to reach a new equilibrium of truth. However, the Executors later tell the player that when these powers are split between two candidates, light and darkness can’t coexist separately, which is why the selection was needed to pick one candidate to become a Transcendent. This is likely why the White Mage didn’t undergo a selection, as he didn’t have another candidate alongside him wielding the opposite power.)

After crossing dimensions, Tana traveled to Kritias and arrived at the capital of Trueffet. While walking in the town square, a young orphan named Jean snuck up in order to pickpocket her. Just then, a large anti-magic stone being hoisted by a rope fell down and exploded. Tana pushed Jean out of the way, but she and everyone else in range were vaporized. To everyone’s shock, however, Tana rematerialized out of thin air. She was then arrested and thrown into prison, where the mages of Trueffet experimented on her in order to find the source of her immortality so that they could bestow it upon their ruler, King Hekaton.

After her capture, the mages of Kritias began experimenting on Tana, now known only as Subject No. 618, in an effort to learn the secret of her immortality. During their research, the mages discovered that memories were tied to the body, rather than the soul, as Tana kept losing more and more of her memories each time that she regenerated the injuries that the researchers inflicted upon her, leaving her with only the faint memory of wanting something.

After a year, the mages grew frustrated that their experiments had yielded no results. They began wondering whether there were any clues in Tana’s memories, though they regretted that any chance of learning them was now lost, as Tana couldn’t even remember her own name anymore. Believing that they had no other choice, the researchers decided that they would attempt to force Tana beyond her regenerative capacity.

The mages inflicted a fatal wound upon Tana, who unexpectedly went berserk and unleashed a massive flash of light, just as she had when the anti-magic stone had fallen on her, causing six of their best researchers to vanish into thin air. In the aftermath, she calmly spoke aloud that she remembered her name, Tana. Because of the inhumanity and incomprehensibility of their experiments, the High Priest, who had been summoned from the Temple of Time, resigned, saying, “This is neither magic nor science. It is beyond human; it is of the gods. We have overstepped our bounds.”

In his place, the new High Priest, Arkarium, was ordered to continue conducting the experiments. As a boy, Arkarium had demonstrated great devotion to the Goddess of Time, Rhinne, allowing him to rise through the ranks to become her most trusted priest. Along with Arkarium, a young man named Shey, who had left Kritias after Tana’s capture in order to become a Priest of Time, returned back to his home in order to assist Arkarium.

After arriving in the dungeons, Shey was shocked at how inhumanely the mages of Kritias treated Tana, viewing her as nothing more than an inanimate object with no emotions, desires, or memories of her own, despite the fact that she was in immense pain. Upon speaking with Tana, Shey learned that the only thing that she could remember was her name and the faint memory of there being something that she had wanted.

Over time, Shey helped Arkarium and the other researchers attempt to transfer Tana’s regenerative capacity to others. Though Arkarium made great strides in the experiment, Tana continued rejecting the transfer of her power to the test subjects, causing their bodies to disintegrate while their souls were left behind. Their souls would desperately attempt to create new bodies for themselves, which resulted in them transforming into monsters.

Meanwhile, Jean - Shey’s childhood friend and the pickpocket whom Tana had saved - discovered where Tana had been imprisoned and broke into the dungeons in order to see her. Though Tana’s memories and emotions had been erased, Jean would nevertheless bring food and read stories to her every night in order to keep her company.

From afar, Shey secretly watched his friend fall in love with Tana, noting that Jean - an orphan whose greatest fear was to be forgotten - had likely felt great compassion for Tana, who had been imprisoned and forgotten in the dungeons. Though it remained unclear whether Tana was being positively affected by Jean’s visits, Shey did notice that during the experiments, Tana would occasionally look up at the ceiling, as if waiting for Jean to climb down and visit her.

As the experiments continued, King Hekaton began to grow impatient and ordered Arkarium to succeed in his experiments by the next day, which would be the day of his Ascendancy ritual. As the experiment for that day concluded, Tana overheard the researchers claiming that regardless of the outcome of the Ascendency ritual, Tana would die one way or another.

That night, Jean came to see Tana, who attempted to push him away so that he wouldn’t miss her when she disappeared. Though she claimed that she had grown tired of his visits and the book that he would read to her, Jean quickly saw through the lie. As the realization that she was about to die set in, Tana’s mental state began deteriorating, causing her powers to spiral out of control. Repeating the mages’ words that she wasn’t human, Tana began screaming in excruciating pain and begged for it to stop.

As Jean attempted to calm her down, Tana recalled that alongside her name, she also had a faint memory of wanting something. As the memory came back to her, Tana realized that what she had wanted more than anything else before she had lost her memories was to die. Upon realizing this, however, Tana immediately grew terrified at the thought, as she realized that she didn’t want to die anymore.

As her mental state continued deteriorating from fear and pain, Jean hugged Tana tightly, promising that he would always keep her safe. Though Tana was afraid of hurting him, Jean’s refusal to leave her side helped her regain control of her powers. Unbeknownst to them, however, Arkarium had secretly watched the entire exchange, causing him to realize that Jean was the key to ensuring the success of the transfer ritual.

The next night, Jean obtained an anti-magic necklace as a present for Tana, which was part of his plan to break her out. With Shey’s help, Jean broke into the dungeon where Tana was being held. Before he could free her, however, Arkarium used his magic to possess Shey, forcing him to call the guards. King Hekaton, whom Arkarium had asked to wait outside, then arrived and ordered his guards to kill Jean in front of Tana.

Just as Arkarium had anticipated, the shock of Jean’s death eradicated Tana’s willpower in rejecting the power transfer, allowing Hekaton’s Ascendency ritual to begin successfully. However, Tana crushed the anti-magic stone in the necklace that Jean had given her, causing the unstable magic to disrupt the Ascendency. Though Hekaton successfully gained the immortality that he sought, the disruption to the ritual caused him to be transfigured into a monster. (A/N: Although it’s impossible for mortals to fully claim the power of a Transcendent, Hekaton and the other failed experiments contain a trace of the Transcendent of Light’s power, resulting in their immortality and strength.)

In his final moments, Hekaton experienced a brief glimmer of humanity and ordered the evacuation of his people from the castle into town. Hekaton then fused with the castle of Trueffet and transformed into a large golem, while the soldiers who were caught in the blast lost their bodies, causing their souls to create grotesques forms to inhabit. The castle of Trueffet then rose up into the sky, where it hung upside down. Meanwhile, the disrupted ritual forced Tana into a state of endless pain as her sanity began to erode, trapped in an endless cycle of decomposition and rematerialization.

(A/N: At this point, the Black Mage - after stealing the power of time from Rhinne - uses the Transcendent of Time’s power to travel back into the past and invade Kritias, thereby ensuring that all records of Tana are destroyed. He then seals Kritias away in a pocket dimension where time stands still in order to save Tana from endless suffering, as well as to keep her secure until the time comes to take her power for the Genesis Ritual.)