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In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 3, the man-made Tatsumi Port Island seems like a gleaming beacon of modern Japanese ingenuity, housing a bustling city and a prestigious high school. However, when the clock strikes twelve, the world as we know it falls away, and in that high school's place rises a twisted tower of steel and darkness: Tartarus.
Tartarus is the primary setting of Persona 3's major story beats and the primary "nest" in which the game's Shadow population dwells. But how does a humble high school transform into a gargantuan, decidedly non-Euclidean tower at an invisible time of day? Let's take a journey through the past and present to uncover the mystery and purpose of Tartarus.
Major Persona series spoilers ahead!
The Origin Of Nyx
Before we can discuss Tartarus, we need to take a trip into the distant past to learn about its master: Nyx, the bringer of death. Nyx is the ultimate antagonist of Persona 3, though, unlike the main antagonists of the other modern Persona games, she is not a construct of the Collective Unconscious. Nyx is a real, tangible creature that actually exists in the normal world, and its residents see her every day: she's the moon.
According to supplementary material, Nyx was originally a planet-sized spacefaring creature. By complete chance, as she was traveling the cosmos, she ended up colliding with the Earth in its formative stages. The severe impact caused Nyx's mind to disconnect from her body; the body drifted off into Earth's orbit, becoming the moon, while her mind remained on the Earth's surface and touched its residents. When humanity emerged, their souls instinctively sealed Nyx's mind away within the burgeoning 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sea of the Soul, where it splintered off into numerous abstract creatuওres based on huma🎀ns and their emotions. It was in this way that humanity received its Shadows, which would become vital for its development.
Millions of years passed as Nyx's body quietly slept in the darkness of space while the Shadows, ever the mirrors of humanity's progress, developed further. Despite being pieces of Nyx, the Shadows had no particular knowledge or inclination toward their origin, but that little spark of darkness still dwelled within every single one of them. All they needed was a little push.
The Tatsumi Port Island Experiments
When Nyx collided with the Earth, numerous pieces of her body splintered off and rained down on the surface. These mysterious fragments were an anomaly of reality, existing simultaneously in both the normal world and the Sea of the Soul. Researchers would name them "Plu𒁃mes of Dusk," one of which just happened to find its way into the hands of Kouetsu Kirijo, former head of the Kirijo Group and grandfather to Mitsuru Kirijo.
Kouetsu, with the help of a privately-funded think tank, performed extensive research on the Plumes of Dusk, uncovering their miraculous abilities to bend space and time and awaken supernatural abilities in humans. The original plan was to use the Plumes of Dusk to create a time machine, but as research progressed, the team eventually discovered the truth of Nyx and the existence of the Shadows in the Collective Unconscious. When this discovery was made, something dark awoke Kouetsu and his men: they became obsessed with making contact with Nyx, believing that all of humanity could be released from its collective suffering in Nyx's embrace.
Utilizing the power of the Plumes of Dusk, the researchersꦡ were able to draw Shadows from the Sea of the Soul and store them in the real world for experimentation. The ultimate goal was to assemble a mass of Shadows so large that it could send a signal to Nyx to reconnect with her severed mind. This gigantic Shadow would come to be known by a simple yet fitting name: Death.
The Rise Of Tartarus And The Dark Hour
However, one of the researchers realized that what they were doing would bring about the end of humanity as we knew it, and resolved to stop it. That researcher, Eiichiro Takeba, father of Yukari Takeba, sabotaged the machinery in the process' final stages, causing Death to be split into thirteen component Arcana Shadows. In their fragmented state, the Arcana Shadows went on a rampage, triggering a massive explosion that killed all the researchers and warped the fabric of space and time around Kouetsu's laboratory.
While the ruins of the laboratory were quickly cleaned up and Gekkoukan High School built over them in reality, the Arcana Shadows' attack had created a wrinkle in the Sea of the Soul. Every night, when the clock strikes midnight, a 13th hour would begin outside the typical bounds of time. During this time, the Sea of the Soul would bleed into the real world, letting Shadows loose into the streets. The ruins of the lab beneath Gekko High would reemerge from the earth as a twisted tower, reaching out to the night sky toward Nyx. Kirijo scientists discovered this bizarre 13th hour and the tower that dwelled in it, naming them The Dark Hour and Tartarus, respectively.
During the Dark Hour, normal humans transform into coffins as an instinctive defense mechanism to protect themselves from marauding Shadows. However, those with a very particular disposition of the soul, nicknamed The Potential, remain as themselves during this time. Through further experimentation with Plumes of Dusk, the scientists discovered that those with The Potential could use the power of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:their own Shadows to summon forth a spiritual protector, a Persona. The Kirijo Group conducted numerous experiments to artificially create Persona-users and find natural ones, all with the goal of assembling a fighting force that could investigate the mystery of Tartarus and, hopefully, put a stop to this. Ironically, no members of the Kirijo Group following Kouetsu's death knew that this strange occurrence was entirely his fault.
The Fall
Before his death, Eiichiro Takeba left a warning for the Kirijo scientists (as well as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a tearful goodbye to his daughter) about the Arcana Shadows, which was doctored by one of Kouetsu's sympathizers to further his plans. In the event that the Arcana Shadows were destroyed, their essences would naturally recombine into Death. Should this happen, Death would immediately resume its mission of contacting Nyx, ascending to the top of Tartarus to ensure its signal goes through.
If Death successfully contacts Nyx, the body (i.e. the entire moon) would descend upon the Earth, not only destroying it physically but forcefully ripping the Shadows away from the Sea of the Soul in an effort to reconnect with its mind. A human without their Shadow succumbs to Apathy Syndrome, losing their drive to live. Without our Shadows, humanity's spark of life would wink out in an instant, even if Nyx didn't destroy the planet. This is the event that Kouetsu and his researchers tried to bring about: The Fall.
To clarify, Nyx is not a malevolent creature. She bears humanity no ill will, and in all likelihood, probably barely registers our existence. Nyx regards our Shadows the same way you would regard your wallet after dropping it on the ground: something that she lost and merely wants to reclaim. Rather, it is humanity itself that calls for her embrace. As revealed in Persona 3 FES, Death is not necessarily a representative of Nyx, despite billing itself as such, but rather a representative of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:cognitive entity Erebus. Erebus represents humanity's collective desire for death and an end to all things, calling out to Nyx in longing. Nyx merely receives Erebus' powerful call and descends upon the Earth to reclaim its mind, fulfilling Erebus' desire effectively by coincidence.
So, in summation, Tartarus is the product of a few men's intense, world-ending nihilism, serving as an antenna of sorts for a gigantic psychic planet-eater. When you lay it all out like that, it sounds a bit wild, but then again, it's not really any wilder than summoning a spiritual protector by shooting yourself in the head.