Grand Bell Hall (location)

The Grand Bell Hall (大鐘堂宮殿) is a large building located at the top of the Second Tower of Ar tonelico, and by extension, of Lush Capital Pastalia. It's the seat of power for the Grand Bell, and thus, it's where the current Maiden lives. It's connected via elevators to several other areas inside of the Second Tower, all of which intersect at Telmina. On the other hand, it also has entrances leading to the Grand Bell Prisons and the Bell Strike Hall.

Backstory
This palace was built by Jaza's community of Pastalia in 3062 AD, and a memorial service was conducted shortly after to mourn for those who perished in the Grathnode Inferia catastrophe and for those who went to Sol Marta in an attempt to bring Frelia back to the Tower, but instead got themselves killed by Raki. It just started as a large bell, but it later on expanded to become a large palace, and due to the bell, it was called the Grand Bell Hall.

A few years later, after Jaza perished and Selena took her place as the first Maiden and second Pope of Metafalss, she established a control organism for the current Pastalia called the Grand Bell, after the place where it was based, and she was pretty much merciless when enforcing its practices, as she exiled both the radical faction of her government and the remnants of the bureaucrats that had come from El Elemia. This allowed Selena to consolidate her power and bring to Metafalss an era of peace that lasted for beyond a century, until her death.

After this, the Hall was the stage of centuries of political strife between the radical and conservative factions, beginning with the discovery and deciphering of Jaza's own sealed EXEC_METAFALICA/. song by the radicals. Initially, the people had great hopes on being allowed to create more land and even went as far to building a great cathedral in honor to Metafalica in the area where Lakra is currently located. However, once they learned that the song would require the sacrifice of the singer, and furthermore, it would only create a faulty land, their hopes crumbled away.

However, the radicals returned to the political stage a few decades later, as the Maiden the conservatives had appointed, Nea, was too weak and couldn't make Frelia's consciousness descend into her, so the people turned against them and this gave the radicals the chance to regain the support of the people, all under the banner of "creating a new land using magic, but through their own power". It was around this time that the genius scientist, Grammul, appeared and published his Super Reyvateil theories. Upon taking notice of this, the Grand Bell hired him to perfection their Infel Phira project, which had been started twice during Selena's reign, but both times it ended in failure. The works continued for several years, and in 3290 AD, Infel Phira's first stage was successfully completed. The year after it, the first IPD Reyvateil, Infel, was transcripted to Infel Phira and became its Administrator.

It was around this time that the Grand Bell decided to implement the Two Maidens policy, and thus the Goddess Maiden was renamed as the Maiden of Homura, while the Maiden that would control Infel Phira received the title of Maiden of Mio. However, Grammul's theories for the creation of Metafalica still continued being flawed, and when Infel exposed these flaws and came up with alternatives to solve them, Grammul lost all support from the Grand Bell and was fired from the project. During all this time, both the Maiden of Homura, Nenesha, and the Maiden of Mio, Infel, continued growing into great friends, and thus, considered each other to be their closest person in the world.

The Grand Bell then decided to build two statues for the current Maidens and place them on the top of the Bell Strike Hall, now renaming this area into the Hill of Metafalica. Infel continued working, and after her experiment on creating a Heart of the Land proved successful, she created the patch that would allow them to execute Metafalica flawlessly: METHOD_METAFALICA/.. Still, during the time in which she sang it alongside Nenesha's own singing of EXEC_METAFALICA/., Infel couldn't bear with the people looking into her heart. This coupled with the people's own uneasiness and distrust on Infel caused her to closed off her heart, nullifying the effects of METHOD_METAFALICA/., provoking Nenesha's death and triggering the First War Against the Goddess. Both the Grand Bell Hall and Pastalia suffered great damages from the war, but in the end, Infel's side was victorious. However, the people blamed her for everything that had happened, and thus, she decided to disappear after having signed a peace treaty with Raki, who served as the representative for the Goddess.

Much later on, in 3422 AD, refugees from Neo Elemia, who came to Metafalss to escape from the disasters brought by Mir's Rebellion, took root on the land and began exchanging their knowledge and technologies with the people of Metafalss. However, they later on began fighting with the people of Metafalss for power, and thus, the Neo Elemians took possession of the Grand Bell Hall and Pastalia, and expelled the Metafalssians to the Rim. This situation continued for a couple of decades, until the Maiden at the time, Illusha, managed to gain possession of the EXEC_PURGER/. Hymn Crystal the Elemians had brought with them, and used it to defeat the technological monsters the Elemians had. The Elemians were then expelled from Pastalia and the Metafalssians regained their former supremacy.

Finally, centuries later, during 3751 AD, Alfman Uranous discovered that the Grand Bell was still working secretly on the Hibernation Project that was first proposed in the peace treaty signed by Infel and Raki, and disagreeing with it as the direction the world should be taking, he caused a coup d'etat and killed the Pope at the time, as well as the husband of the current Maiden, Arshe. Arshe herself was killed shortly later in a raid that was made to look like an IPD Outbreak, while her daughter Cloche Leythal Pastalia went missing. Alfman concentrated all the powers on his person and reformed the hierarchical structure of the Grand Bell, thus remaking it into the Neo Grand Bell and declaring his secession from the Goddess, as well as declaring Her as the enemy of all Metafalss. He also took all of the staff members that disagreed with his policies and either killed or expelled them from the Grand Bell, while other left of their own accord. Most of them later on ended meeting and forming the Sacred Army to oppose Alfman's regime.

After Cloche was found and brought back to the Grand Bell Hall as the 33rd Maiden, she spent the entirety of her days forced to study, memorize speeches and pay lip service to the guests that Alfman frequently invited inside this Hall, and being unable to voice her own opinions or act as she thought convenient, as if she disobeyed any of Alfman's orders she would be sent to the IPD Labs for a painful and traumatizing reeducation process.

Current Times
(More coming later...)

Layout
While technically speaking it isn't a dungeon due to lacking random encounters, it's still a large area that hides a few treasure chests, so it's worth taking the time to explore it. The entrance to Telmina allows access to the lifts that will transport the party to other areas, such as Lakra and the IPD Labs. However, keep on mind that the stairs leading to the Grand Bell Prisons will be covered in rubble after Phase 3 begins, so make sure to take the chests there as soon as you can.

Treasures

 * Mute Mail
 * Crack Bolt
 * Animal Bustier
 * Silverstrand Flare
 * Parameno Ring
 * Refresh Core

Bosses

 * ??? and Origin Guard x 2 (first visit)
 * ??? and Divine Army x 2 (near the end of Phase 1)
 * Imperial and Defender x 2 (during Phase 3)
 * Defender x 2 and Imperial x 2 (during Phase 3)

Talk Topics

 * Talk Topics: Cloche (after clearing Cloche's Lv. 6-R Cosmosphere)
 * Talk Topics: Cloche (after clearing Cloche's Lv. 5 Cosmosphere)
 * Talk Topics: Jacqli