PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 41: Morass, the Swamp of Memory

Having restored balance to the forest of Arcana, the Adversary continued riding the Flying Fish across the Arcane River. Unexpectedly, however, the Flying Fish began swimming towards the bottom of the Arcane River into a strange coral reef. The Adversary wondered where they had gone, to which the Flying Fish explained that they were at the edge of the Arcane River.

The Adversary expressed their shock that the Flying Fish could suddenly talk, to which the Flying Fish explained that he had gained the ability to speak, since they were near the Morass, where the Erdas were more concentrated. He then introduced himself as the Will of Erda, a proxy for the Erdas created to save the world, just like the Adversary.

(A/N: In a sense, the Flying Fish is almost exactly like Sugar, who was created as a proxy by the Goddess of Maple World in order to help the Explorer stop the Black Mage. Since the Erdas are what make up everything in the world, including Sugar, and since it’s been hinted that the canonical Adversary is a Hero, it almost feels like in a symbolic way, Sugar is still standing by our side through the Flying Fish. It also opens up an interesting question of whether the Goddesses of Grandis and Tynerum are able to create mortal avatars of themselves in order to help the people of their respective worlds.)

As they headed closer towards the Morass, the Adversary was surprised to find Xenoroids around them, which were much stronger than the ones that they had fought before in the past. The Flying Fish explained that the Erdas in the Morass could mimic the memories of others as a survival technique, adding that they could become their enemy’s greatest fear if needed. Because of this, the Erdas were able to manifest themselves as Xenoroids from the Adversary’s memories of Black Heaven. The Adversary then fought past the Xenoroids, though they found that the Erdas would simply manifest anew upon being defeated. 

(A/N: Although it would’ve been cool if each class got a unique enemy based on their own worst fears, I like the idea that Black Heaven is the thing that gives every class more PTSD than anything else in their individual storylines. It makes total sense why, since we were in a high-stress environment filled with heavy casualties, Francis, getting publicly court-martialed, mandatory jump quests and minigames, fighting a fully-powered Lotus, replaying Act 2 two dozen times for exclusive dialogue, and literally being on the verge of death before being revived with the Seal Stone.

If I were in the Morass, the Erdas there would probably manifest as a stack of several hundred pages that still need to be proofread and edited. One day, this site will be free of spelling and grammar mistakes. Sadly, today is not that day. Fortunately for me, Sacrix does a great job of being my unofficial editor by catching a good number of typos during his lore readings, at the cost of outing my inability to spell to the wider universe.)

The Flying Fish then told the Adversary that Tana was nearby, whose power was strong enough to affect even him. They quietly proceeded ahead and found Tana standing with Arkarium. Tana’s hair began oscillating between dark and light, and Arkarium noted that her mental state was deteriorating. In extreme pain, Tana asked who she was and why she was hurting. Arkarium reminded her that her name was Tana and explained that the Black Mage was waiting for her, and that he was offering to stop her pain in exchange for sharing her power with him.

Tana was able to recall that the Black Mage was the one who had sealed her away, though Arkarium told her that it had been for her own safety, as freezing her in time had stopped her from feeling unbearable pain and eventual madness. He then told Tana that they had gone over the same information many times, adding that they didn’t have time to go over it again.

The Flying Fish urged the Adversary to get Tana away from Arkarium, promising to explain later. As the Adversary confronted Arkarium, Tana lost control of her powers, causing the river current to grow stronger. Just as Arkarium shielded himself, Tana’s powers resulted in a widespread explosion, which the Adversary and the Flying Fish barely managed to escape. In the distance, the castle of Trueffet from Kritias manifested, causing Tana to grow shocked at seeing her old prison. As she wondered how it could have appeared, Arkarium told Tana that her powers had allowed it to manifest.

Some distance away, the Adversary was surprised to see Trueffet, to which the Flying Fish explained that it was a distorted plane of existence created from Tana’s memories. Though they were able to see it as it existed in her mind, it was really just a living coral reef that had been transformed. He explained that Tana’s memory had overridden everyone else’s, which was why the Xenoroids had disappeared.

He also revealed that Tana’s power exceeded that of the Black Mage. Because of her unparalleled ability to control the Erdas, the Black Mage had ordered Arkarium to bring her before him so that he could exploit her powers. The Adversary asked if Tana truly wanted to help the Black Mage destroy the world, to which the Flying Fish explained that she likely didn’t know what she was doing, as the Black Mage was taking advantage of her weakened mental state. 

The Flying Fish then cautioned the Adversary not to lose themselves in Tana’s memories while inside the Morass. Immediately upon entering, however, they were both swept away into Tana’s memories of Trueffet in Hekatonian Year 52. In Trueffet Square, the Adversary’s body was changed to match that of Shey, a young man hoping to become a priest at the Temple of Time. Though the Adversary was able to remember their true self, they noted how their body and voice continued playing automatically through the memory. (A/N: I’ll refer to Shey whenever the memory loop is playing and refer to the Adversary whenever their mind overrides their body from the Morass.)

Just then, a thief named Jean stole Shey’s money and ran off. After getting caught, Jean threw the money to the alley cats, laughing that he always had a backup plan. While Shey collected his money back, Jean headed back to town, where he saw Tana watching a large anti-magic stone being lifted on a pulley. Deciding to pickpocket her, Jean snuck up behind Tana, but just as he reached out his hand, Tana grabbed him and told him that she hadn’t expected him.

(A/N: She says this because she becomes aware of the memory loop and is surprised to see Jean again, as he was killed by King Hekaton in the actual timeline. You’ll see that some events here are changed as a result of the Adversary’s influence in the memory loop, though it’s important to note that none of the events that are changed here actually influence the past, as this is just an imprint of Tana’s memories, not actual time-travel.)

Tana pushed Jean aside, just as the pulley rope broke, causing the anti-magic stone to shatter and vaporize everyone in the vicinity. Jean and the other survivors then watched in horror as Tana’s form rematerialized into a figure with white hair and glowing eyes.

(A/N: The symbol that appears in her eyes while she channels her powers is actually the Equilibrium symbol for Luminous, which is also the insignia of Aurora and the diamond-like pattern on both ends of his Shining Rod. When Tana was first revealed in a teaser image for Arcana, this symbol was what first led people to theorize that she had some connection to the Transcendent of Light, with many guessing that she was either Aeona or created from Aeona, similar to how Luminous was created from the Black Mage.)

The memory loop then flashed forward two years, and the Adversary suddenly heard the Flying Fish’s voice urging them to snap out of it. The Adversary quickly regained their senses, though they were temporarily dazed from having been immersed in Shey’s memories. The Flying Fish explained that they were inhabiting someone from Tana’s memories. He told them that Tana was a prisoner of the Morass, just as they were, and warned that those who became trapped in the Morass would remain stuck in the memory loop, eventually becoming Erdas themselves. Just as he began telling the Adversary how to escape, his voice faded away and the memory loop resumed, set two years later.

(A/N: At this point, the Adversary retains full control over themselves, but I’ll continue referring to them as Shey when they’re participating in the memory loop so as not to break the immersion, and switch back to calling them the Adversary when something outside of that happens, such as the Flying Fish communicating with them. Shey is now a fully-fledged priest, having spent the last two years studying at the Temple of Time.)

Back in Trueffet, one of the researchers asked Shey to pick up a late shipment for the memorial service created for those who had been killed two years ago by the anti-magic stone. At the market, Shey found the merchant being harassed by gangsters. The merchant loudly proclaimed that Shey was a priest from the Temple of Time and advised the thugs to leave. The gangsters decided to back off, but not before stealing the merchant’s apples.

After Shey recovered the apples, he asked the merchant whether he knew anything about the crystal disaster and its survivor. The merchant wondered why Shey was asking about it, as the event had happened while Shey had still been in town, before he had left for his studies. However, he told Shey that he didn’t know anything and advised him to ask someone else.

Shey then met a woman selling pottery, who asked him to teach the gangsters a lesson first. After beating them up, Shey returned to the woman, who told him that the people of Trueffet called the survivor an Angel of Death, and that the soldiers had taken her away, never to be seen again. She mentioned that Jean had also been asking about her, though he hadn’t been seen in several days. Suddenly, Shey noticed that there was a glowing journal in his bag and decided to look at it later.

(A/N: His journal glows and updates with new information periodically, but just like the cracks of memory in Lachelein, I’ll cover all the details at the end of this section so as not to break the flow of story.)

The woman then told him that a researcher was looking for him. After meeting the researcher, Shey was told that the High Priest had arrived, and that he had gone to the observatory. There, Shey was surprised to meet Arkarium, the High Priest. (A/N: At this point in time, Arkarium is much younger and still remains loyal to Rhinne.)

The memory loop then flashed forward and the Adversary found themselves in a dungeon. They realized that Tana and Arkarium had to have known each other from centuries ago and suspected that they must have been connected to the sealing of Kritias. Inside one of the research labs, they found Tana shackled inside a large spell circle, with researchers conducting tests. Tana asked Shey if he knew who she was, as no one remembered her and she remembered no one, with all that was left to her being her name and a faint memory of wanting something. However, she noted that Shey seemed vaguely familiar before crying out in pain.

(A/N: Once again, this seems to be the result of her partially being aware of the memory loop and recognizing Shey from when they had briefly met in the actual past. The line about there being something that she had wanted was omitted in the GMS dialogue, which is really dumb because what she wanted was like one of the most important parts of her character development, and it was meant to tie into the Adversary’s own character arc.)

One of the researchers explained that they were testing her daily in order to see if they could transfer her regenerative power to others. They told Shey that upon failure, the test recipients vanished, though Tana’s power enabled her body to restore itself perfectly every time. Shey expressed that it seemed inhumane, but the researcher told him that regardless of how Tana appeared, she wasn’t human, but rather, she was merely an inanimate object with no emotions, desires, or memories. In order to explain it better, he told Shey to obtain his research journal from the lower dungeons, where another researcher had dropped it while running out in fright.

Inside the dungeons, Shey fought the strange shadows in the room and obtained the research journal, from which they learned that Hekaton had ordered for hundreds of test subjects to be experimented upon in order to learn the secret of immortality, with Tana being Subject No. 618. Believing that Tana held the key to overcoming death, the researchers had eagerly believed that they had begun the ascent to reach the divine.

While experimenting, the researchers had learned that memories were tied to the body, rather than the soul, as Tana kept losing her memories each time that she repaired the injuries that the researchers had repeatedly inflicted on her body, leaving her with only the faint memory that there was something that she had wanted. After a year of experimentation, the researchers had grown frustrated that their efforts had yielded no results. They had believed that there might have been a clue in her memories, though she couldn’t even remember her name anymore.

With no other choice, the researchers had risked using more extreme methods by forcing Tana beyond her regenerative capacity through fatally wounding her. During the experiment, however, Tana had gone berserk and had unleashed a flash of light, just as she had done on the day that the anti-magic stone had broken, causing six of their best researchers to vanish without a trace. After she had regenerated her body, she had then spoken aloud and told them that she remembered that her name was Tana.

Shey returned to the lab and learned that the former High Priest had written the entries before resigning, claiming that they had overstepped their bounds as mortals. Arkarium then entered the room and began a new test, which he deemed as a success after the test recipient received only moderate damage during the transfer process. The Adversary then wondered whether Arkarium was aware of being trapped in the memory loop.

After the experiment, the memory loop flashed forward and the Flying Fish’s voice told the Adversary to hide. Shey witnessed Jean break into Tana’s prison and attempt to rescue her. When he found that he couldn’t break her chains, he continued returning to her each night, reading to her and attempting to befriend her, though Tana’s lost emotions had made it difficult to read whether she was being positively affected by his efforts. However, Shey had noted a single, particular change in Tana, which was that she would occasionally look up at the ceiling from time to time, waiting for Jean to climb down and visit her.

The memory loop then flashed forward again, and one of the researchers asked Shey to bring Red Reagent from the dungeons for the experiment. As Arkarium conducted the experiment, King Hekaton himself arrived and berated him for his slow progress, ordering the researchers to raise the intensity. Tana’s power levels quickly reached critical as she unleashed a flash of vaporizing light, which King Hekaton miraculously survived, though the researchers noted a strange distortion in his spirit, causing them to realize that his body was no longer human.

(A/N: The implication here is that Hekaton has experimented on himself so much that his body is no longer human, which had allowed him to survive Tana’s vaporizing light when normal people couldn’t.)

Hekaton then ordered Arkarium to succeed in his experiment by tomorrow, which he declared would be the day of his Ascendancy. One of the researchers then noted that tomorrow would be their last day in the dungeons, as no matter what the outcome of the Ascendancy ritual would be, it was assured that Tana, one way or another, would disappear. The memory loop then flashed forward to that night, where the Flying Fish told the Adversary that the next memory was important.

The Adversary watched as Jean entered Tana’s prison, but uncharacteristically, Tana told Jean to stop visiting her, claiming that she had lost interest in the book that he normally read to her. However, Jean merely laughed and told her that she was terrible at lying. Tana, who had been lying to Jean in order to drive him away so that he wouldn’t miss her when she disappeared, then recalled the words of the researchers - that tomorrow, she would die no matter what.

As the realization sunk in, Tana’s psychological state began deteriorating as she repeated the researchers’ words about her not being human. As her powers began spiraling out of control, Tana’s eyes and hair oscillated between their glowing and normal states as she began screaming in pain. A shocked Jean asked Tana whether she was okay, to which Tana incoherently replied that she was in excruciating pain and begged for it to stop. Though Jean continued reassuring her that she would be fine, Tana’s power continued building up as she warned him to get back.

Though the Adversary attempted to intervene, the Flying Fish told them to stay back, explaining that Jean was fated to survive until the day of the Ascendency. As Tana’s mental state continued deteriorating, she suddenly recalled the faint memory of what it was that she had wanted so desperately that it was the only thing that she could remember, other than her own name. As the memory came back to her, she realized that what she had wanted more than anything else was to die.

Upon realizing this, however, Tana immediately grew terrified at the thought of dying, for while her death was assured to happen tomorrow, it wasn’t what she wanted anymore. As Tana’s power threatened to overwhelm her, Jean pulled Tana into a hug and promised that he would stay by her side no matter what, claiming that he needed her as much as she needed him, and that they should always be together. Tana told Jean to stay back, as she didn’t want to hurt him, but as Jean continued holding her close to him, promising to always keep her safe, Tana was gradually able to regain control over herself and calm down.

Nevertheless, Tana told Jean to stop visiting her, as it wasn’t safe for him. However, Jean replied that she didn’t know how the story that he had been reading to her ended. He explained that the princess was rescued by a brave knight, to which Tana told him that he wasn’t a knight, though Jean pointed out that she wasn’t a princess, either. He then told Tana that he would get her out of her prison, as it was now his turn to save her, just like how she’d saved him from the anti-magic stone years ago.

To the Adversary’s surprise, Tana gave Jean a small smile that the Adversary, in their mind, noted had warmed Shey’s heart with her first display of emotion. However, Shey had also noted that fate was cruel, as though it had been purposely designed to act in such a way, with each story and each person fitting into each other like individual cogs in a machine. He then thought to himself that the final product was slowly taking shape, appearing in an unbelievable form as the end of Kritias closed in.

The Flying Fish then told the Adversary that Jean’s rescue attempt would fail in the end, triggering the fall of Kritias. He urged the Adversary to help Jean successfully escape, as changing the story was the only way to draw out Tana’s consciousness. He added that he would soon become trapped in the Morass of Tana’s memories and told the Adversary that it was up to them to break everyone free.

In order to change the memory, the Adversary asked Jean to meet them in the dungeon, telling him that they needed his help to save Kritias. Jean asked them to first find a special gift that he had lost in the dungeons. After searching, they found a necklace made with an anti-magic stone. Jean told the Adversary that he planned to unchain Tana and use the stone in order to break their way out. As the researchers normally dropped the magical barrier over the castle during their experiments, he believed that they could use that moment to break Tana free.

They fought through the monsters in the dungeons and arrived at the Restricted Area in order to obtain the key to Tana’s shackles. The Adversary then asked Jean how he had managed to enter the dungeons, to which Jean told them that he had assumed that it was they who had left a note about the secret passageway. The Adversary wondered whether Shey had left the note in between the flash-forwards, and so they lied and confirmed that they had indeed left the note for him, despite knowing nothing about it.

Just then, Arkarium approached them and proposed that they work together to free Tana, as his powers as a Guardian of Time allowed him to foresee that Hekaton’s Ascendency would unleash untold horrors upon Kritias. They entered Tana’s prison, where Arkarium told her that she would not survive the Ascendency, as failure meant that she would be trapped forever in an endless loop of disintegration and reconstitution.

Shey, with his own limited precognition as a Priest of Time, was able to see that Jean’s plan would work, though the Adversary knew that Shey was wrong. As the Ascendency preparations began, Jean infiltrated the lab and told the Adversary that the purple eye on their head was getting darker. When they voiced their confusion, Jean noted that it was the same mark that they had left on the note.

The Adversary realized that it was Arkarium’s mark and turned around to find Arkarium in his present-day form, who then trapped the Adversary inside a magical prison. He revealed that as a former Guardian of Time, he was strong enough to not be trapped in the past. Explaining that he had possessed Shey in the past in order to interrupt Jean, he decided that he would do it himself this time, since the Adversary was in control of Shey’s body.

He then made Jean’s presence known, causing the guards to immediately arrest him. Realizing that Jean was the key that Arkarium had told him about, Hekaton ordered his guards to kill Jean. At the shock of Jean being stabbed, Tana’s resistance levels plummeted as Hekaton prepared to become immortal. Just then, one of the guards noticed that Jean was still alive and told Hekaton that he could still be saved if they treated him. However, Hekaton declared that he didn’t matter and ordered the guards to drag Jean’s body out and throw him away.

Unexpectedly, however, Tana instead shattered the anti-magic necklace that Jean had given her in order to stop the ritual. Though the Adversary attempted to stop her, warning that she would face eternal pain if she were to interrupt the power transfer, Tana replied that it didn’t matter and told Hekaton that she would gladly take an eternity of torment if it meant cursing him and depriving him of everything that he had worked for.

Arkarium told the Adversary that he had only allowed the memory loop to play through in order to learn why the ritual had failed centuries ago. He then trapped the Adversary inside a pocket dimension before kidnapping Tana. After breaking free, they found Jean collapsed alone upon the floor. He then revealed himself as the Flying Fish, who had been inhabiting Jean’s body throughout Tana’s memories. He told the Adversary that there was still one more magical seal where Arkarium was taking Tana in order to steal her powers for himself.

Upon going outside, they found Hekaton transfigured into a giant monster, having become immortal at a terrible price. They felt Shey’s mind registering how Kritias had been swept forward in time by a dark force. (A/N: Shortly after stealing Rhinne’s powers, the Black Mage used the power of time to invade Kritias in the past.) The Adversary then fought through the soldiers, who had been transformed by Tana’s influence, and arrived at the magical seal where Arkarium was. (A/N: The soldiers’ weapons are the same disembodied weapons that you fight in present-day Kritias.)

Arkarium revealed that his past self had thought that Tana’s powers were eternal youth and immortality, but the Black Mage had taught him that her true power was the ability to manipulate the Erdas. Claiming that Tana’s shell of her former self wasn’t worthy of the Black Mage, Arkarium planned to steal her powers for himself.

The Adversary fought Arkarium and his minions, but they were unable to defeat him fully. Suddenly, Jean appeared and hugged Tana, helping her control her powers. Though Arkarium scoffed at her abilities, he soon found himself a victim of his own hubris as Tana effortlessly vaporized Arkarium and all of his forces.

Tana then realized that Jean wasn’t truly himself, which the Flying Fish sadly confirmed. However, he warned them that Black Mage of the past, created from Tana’s memories, would soon arrive in order to seal Kritias in time. The Adversary asked why the Black Mage’s forces had invaded Kritias centuries ago, to which the Flying Fish explained that it was to cover up any evidence of Tana’s existence. He advised that they leave immediately, since the Black Mage created by the Morass, though not as powerful as the real one, would still be incredibly dangerous. 

The three of them finally escaped the Morass and arrived at the bottom of the Arcane River. To the Adversary’s surprise, the Flying Fish was still stuck in Jean’s form. The Adversary began searching for Tana in order to convince her not to join the Black Mage, but Jean told them that it was no use, as only the destruction of the world would bring an end to her pain.

Just then, Jean felt something in his pocket and found an Arcane Symbol, which he gave to the Adversary. In the distance, Tana briefly considered stopping them in order to prevent them from thwarting the Black Mage, but when she saw the Flying Fish in the form of Jean, she decided against it and walked off.

(A/N: Tana’s story makes me really sad in the same way that Shade’s does. There are a lot of parallels between her and the White Mage as the Transcendents of Light of their respective worlds, and amongst some of their shared traits is the fact that both of them had wanted to die in order to escape their fates. The White Mage’s death, for him, was quite impersonal, because he saw himself and everyone else as just cogs in a grand design, and so he never viewed his own life as something particularly meaningful beyond the salvation that it could offer the world through ending it.

Tana, in contrast, lived a very small, intimate life that was only ever filled with herself and few others. She spent most of her life alongside her sister, Aeona, and she had to go through the trauma of having to accept that her sister had gone insane, and then killing her, and in doing so, killing the only person in the world who ever cared about her. After that, just like the White Mage, she learned the truth about the Overseers and their chains of law that threatened to drag her down into slavery, just as they had done to her sister.

Similar to the White Mage, Tana’s strong willpower allowed her to resist the Overseers and rebel against them, but unlike the White Mage - who had his convictions and a strong drive to see them through - Tana had nothing except the pain and suffering that continued haunting her no matter where she went. It’s a bit ironic that the White Mage, having awakened with the power of destruction, sought to create a better life for the world, whereas Tana, who awakened with the power of creation, sought to destroy her own.

For me, Tana’s life - and the Morass storyline as a whole - is a metaphor for trauma and mental illness. The Morass reshapes itself to become your greatest fear - for the Adversary, it was their traumatic memories of Black Heaven, and for Tana, it was her traumatic memories of her imprisonment and torture in Kritias. Everything about the Morass, from the music, to the atmosphere, to the monsters, conveys a sense of hidden fear. A morass is a marsh or a swamp, but it’s also a word that refers to a confusing and overwhelming situation, similar to the moments that shape our trauma.

Inside the Morass, we’re confronted by shadows on the wall, monsters that represent our hidden fears - with the disembodied Kritias weapons, such as the Permeating Terrors or Frozen Anxieties, being our darkest emotions, like anxiety, rage, and terror, given physical form - and Erdas that shape themselves into things from the most horrifying moments of our lives. Within that Morass, Tana continues this theme of mental illness through a lot of the subtext in her life, specifically in regard to her powers and her relationships to others, which opens up a different interpretation of her life through that lens.

On one level, Tana hearing the voices of the Overseers and feeling compelled to obey them sounds akin to auditory hallucinations, but that idea of feeling compelled to obey their commands can also be interpreted as a feeling of being trapped in an inescapable destiny and all the pain that it brings. Mental illness can quite often make it feel as though you have no power or agency over your life, as though the universe or the gods or some higher power is working to keep you trapped, similar to the Overseers attempting to take away Tana’s free will and control over her own life.

Her instability and her inability to control her powers can also be taken as a metaphor for some of the more destructive aspects of mental illness. When she loses her grip on her sanity, she quite literally explodes and takes anyone in the near vicinity with her, which is something pretty relatable to people who experience things like anxiety or manic episodes, who often end up saying or doing things that hurt others.

In the immediate aftermath of Tana’s explosive bouts, she also starts losing her feelings and memories, which sounds a lot like the haze of numbness and difficulty thinking associated with low moods following those anxious or manic episodes. After the loss of her memories, Tana ended up getting completely dehumanized by the mages of Kritias, who viewed her as an object instead of a real person, and that idea of not feeling like a living thing sounds very reminiscent of feelings associated with depression.

Going by this interpretation of Tana being mentally ill and self-destructive, it adds up with the idea that she had come to Kritias with the intention of killing herself. When she arrives in Kritias and saves Jean, she deliberately chose to stand in the way of the anti-magic stone in the hope that she might finally be able to die and put an end to her suffering. When Hekaton imprisoned her and ordered his mages to experiment on her, she likely didn’t resist because she knew that if Hekaton stole her Transcendent powers, it would finally allow her to become mortal and die.

During those years, she was trapped in a living nightmare and was experimented on by being tortured and maimed routinely, and it came to the point that she lost everything that made her a person. What’s important to note is that she didn’t simply have a desire to die - she only had a faint memory of wanting to die. Her agency was stripped from her so completely that she wasn’t even allowed to have the capacity to want anything anymore - she was left with just a brief memory of a time when she still had that fundamental right to have opinions about her own existence.

In the midst of all that darkness, Jean was able to shine as a light in her life when she needed it most. When she thought that she would never be saved, Jean came into her life at the most unexpected moment and changed everything by making her care about herself again. Jean spending time with Tana gave me the same vibe as someone helping a person who’s going through a very rough patch, and what I really loved to see was that even in spite of her being emotionless and unresponsive, he never once gave up on her in all those years.

Despite the mages of Kritias stripping her of her humanity, Jean was able to counteract that by treating her with dignity and love. Even though the other mages didn’t notice, Shey was able to see Tana’s emotions slowly returning with the way that she’d look up at the ceiling to see if Jean was coming, which shows that she was slowly able to start having wants and feelings like every living thing deserves to have. With her memory of wanting to die erased from her mind because of the experiments, Jean was slowly able to help her find meaning in her life again, and she started believing that being alive was worth something.

The night before the Ascendency ritual, Tana starts having a mental breakdown upon realizing that she’s going to die tomorrow, and that it’s something that she had been desperately hoping for. In spite of barely having any memories or emotions, she starts feeling terrified because after all the time that she’s spent with Jean, she’s realized that she doesn’t want to die anymore, because for the first time in her life, she’s met someone who genuinely cares for her and wants nothing in return.

I think that there’s something very raw and powerful in the idea that in spite of wanting to die so badly, when you’re finally faced with the real possibility of it happening, the terror that you feel is something both unexpected and liberating because it shows that in spite of all your pain, there’s still a small, resilient part of you that still keeps alive our natural instinct to hope and to choose to persist.

Jean then stays with Tana through her breakdown and promises that he’ll stay with her no matter what, and that he won’t let anything happen to her, which gives her the strength to finally care about herself again after spending countless years of having given up on herself and any chance of thinking that she’ll be anything other than an object for someone else to use. That, more than anything else, made me really sad, because it’s clear that Jean was the best thing to ever happen to her, which makes it even more tragic and unfair that Tana had to watch the only source of happiness in her life bleed to death on the floor right in front of her.

Overall, I think Tana might’ve had one of the worst lives in the game and I really hope that the writers give her a decent ending because there’s nothing that I hate more than characters who solely exist as narrative punching bags just to squeeze out emotions from the audience. Even Shade, who had a similarly tragic life, ended up getting a happy ending, which means that there’s no reason why Tana shouldn’t either.)

Meanwhile, Arkarium, whose body had been destroyed, transferred his life force into his backup snake body, just as he had done when Damien had used Alicia’s powers to destroy his body. Badly damaged, Arkarium awaited the Black Mage of the past, believing that Rhinne’s power would allow him to enter Kritias of the past and restore his powers. Just then, the Black Mage of the past appeared and told him that the real Black Mage had commanded him to say, “You have done well. Rest.” The Black Mage’s echo then killed Arkarium, who had finally outlived his usefulness.

(A/N: Arkarium also has a really bad habit of thinking that he’s stronger than literal Transcendents and then getting utterly demolished as a result. In fact, Arkarium’s story can basically be summed up in a single line: “How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?!”)

Meanwhile, in the distance, the Adversary noted that Trueffet hadn’t disappear as expected. Jean noted that he still had to find a way to restore his true form in order to take the Adversary to the Black Mage. He decided that he would return to the Morass in order to find a solution, believing that there had to be a clue to reverting his form there.

(A/N: I mentioned earlier that I’d cover all the parts of Shey’s journal at the end, which I’ll do here.

The first entry has Shey talk about Tana reforming after the anti-magic stone shattered.

The second entry has Shey talk about Jean after first seeing him visit Tana. Shey recalls the last words that Jean had said to him before he left to study at the Temple of Time: “If I had died in that accident… would anyone have missed me?” Shey speculates that as an orphan with no home or family, Jean’s greatest fear was being forgotten, which is likely what had sparked his compassion for Tana, who remained forgotten and imprisoned in the dungeons.

The third entry has Shey explain that the people of Kritias viewed Hekaton as a benevolent king, whose strength, wisdom, and compassion surpassed even his extensive magical knowledge. Under Hekaton’s leadership, Kritias had entered a grand renaissance. Over time, however, Hekaton had grown weak and frail with age, causing his mind to grow warped by fear, turning his benevolence into cruelty. As even the advanced magical knowledge of Kritias couldn’t stop his aging, Hekaton’s lust for immortality turned him into a monster. Shey adds that he could scarcely recognize Hekaton after returning back to Kritias and seeing him in the dungeons.

The fourth entry talks reveals that every test subject that they had used as recipients of Tana’s magic had rejected her power, causing them to vanish. Later on, one of the researchers had discovered the monsters in the dungeons, and he had learned that though the test subjects’ bodies had been destroyed, their souls had remained, with the monsters being those souls’ vain attempts at reforming bodies that they could never again inhabit. The researchers had been sickened, but they had nevertheless chosen to seal the dungeon and continue experimenting for many years, creating countless more monsters doomed to eternal suffering.

The fifth entry is written right after the failed Ascendancy ritual, which had nearly destroyed all of Kritias. Soon after, the power of time had pulled Kritias into the future by the Black Mage, who had decided to invade after learning about Tana’s existence. Hekaton, in his final moments, regained his humanity and ordered the evacuation of the castle of Trueffet, after which the castle had lifted into the sky.

The sixth and final entry has Shey explain that with Kritias in ruins and countless lives sacrificed, he can’t call himself a priest anymore. Because of this, he chooses to exile himself and spend the rest of his life atoning, adding that while he knows that atonement is impossible, he believes that spending his life consumed with sorrow is the only fate that he deserves. It’s strongly implied in the Kritias storyline that Shey becomes Cantor by hiding his face and identity.

This is the end of the actual Morass storyline. Everything below is a prequest to unlock Morass dailies.)

Some time later, Jean called the Adversary back to the Morass. At the town square, he told them that he was planning to store his power while looking for a way to regain his old form. He asked them to collect Memory Slivers from the monsters around Trueffet, as the Memory Slivers were capable of gathering and clarifying scattered memories. After obtaining them, the Adversary returned to Jean, who thanked them for their help. He explained that the Memory Slivers felt like a buzz from an energy drink, but on a galactic scale. (A/N: I’ll have what he’s having.)

The Adversary joked that they should find wings for Jean so that he could carry them on his back. They then wondered how Tana had been able to move on, to which Jean supposed that she had used her power to control the Erdas in order to push herself along on an Erda path or an Erda tugboat. The Adversary suggested following her trail of Erdas, as they may be able to pick up clues with their own basic command over the Erdas.

(A/N: I really like that the writers remembered that our 5th job skills are just basic Erda manipulation. Although we can’t manipulate Erda on the same scale as a Transcendent, we still have the ability to do some pretty cool things. Kaiser can temporarily manifest his past lives by drawing out their Erda, while Hoyoung can summon weakened echoes of beings that might possibly be Ancient Gods.

It seems that our ability to use skills is restricted only by our imagination. As a Hero main, while I love how awesome Worldreaver is, it does feel a bit lame that while other classes can summon literal gods, my primary ability is to summon one, singular extra sword. At least let me summon a couple dozen like Adele can. Just because I’m the canon Adversary doesn’t mean that my imagination is as lackluster as theirs.)

The Adversary and Jean went to the Leaning Tower, where Tana had last been seen when Arkarium had tried to steal her powers. They fought through the thralled soldiers in their way and reached the broken magical seal. There, Jean felt Tana’s overwhelming power, though he noted that it was merely an echo. He doubted that she had gone through that way, as the tower was merely a haven for her displaced rage. They returned back to the town square, where Jean believed that they could track her down by finding the traces left by her.

In order to find traces of Tana, they went to the research lab, where Jean believed that they would find a clue, as she had been there the longest. Just then, a researcher appeared and told them that no one ought to be in the lab anymore. He explained that he was the only survivor of the failed Ascendency, and that he had been there ever since. In order to atone for his sins, the researcher looked after the bodies of everyone else so that the failed experiments didn’t corrupt them. (A/N: Shey also survived the Ascendancy ritual, although I guess the researcher probably didn’t see him after he went into exile.)

In exchange for helping him, the researcher offered to tell them about that fateful day. The Adversary fought the Red Shadows and Experiments Gone Wrong in order to make the laboratory quiet once more. During a final sweep of the area, they found a sealed door with strange light streaming through it. Just then, several shadow monsters appeared and the Adversary fought them off before turning back to the door.

Unable to force it to open, they returned to the researcher in order to ask him about it. The researcher had never heard of such a door, but noted that pieces of the anti-magic stone that had exploded had been gathered and sealed nearby. Jean wondered whether Tana had passed through it, but the Adversary doubted it, explaining that it was covered in cobwebs, as though it hadn’t been touched in years. (A/N: This is the door that later takes us to Esfera.)

Moving back to the main topic, Jean asked the researcher about what he had seen. The researcher explained that he had seen Tana heading towards the outskirts of Trueffet. Jean feared that she might have met the Black Mage of the past, who may have pointed the way to the real Black Mage to her. Asking if they intended to follow Tana, the researcher requested that they give her his apologies for the unforgivable crimes that he had committed.

At the outskirts, they found several thralled soldiers along the way. After fighting past them, Jean asked the Adversary to collect Memory Glass in order to examine the traces of memory around them. With the Memory Glass, Jean was able to discover where she had gone and led the Adversary to a large dimensional gate that Tana had created. They attempted to enter the gate, but were forced back to the outskirts of the Morass. After recovering from the blast, the Adversary was shocked to find Jean lying face down nearby and gathered Memory Slivers from the Xenoroids in order to revive him.

After waking up, Jean noticed that Trueffet was slowly disappearing, as everything was slowly returning back to the way it was in the absence of Tana’s influence. As it would mean that they’d lose Tana’s trail, they rushed back to the outskirts of Trueffet, where they fought past the evaporating Erdas, which were remnants of the thralled soldiers. Back in the town square, Jean asked the Adversary to help keep the Morass together until they found where Tana had gone, explaining that he would naturally return to his Flying Fish form after Trueffet disappeared.

(A/N: Unlike most dailies in the Arcane River and mainland Grandis, it seems like the dailies in the Morass canonically happened, which might be why we had a whole prequest backstory to unlock them.)