History of Sol Ciel

This is the story of everything that happened in the story of the setting of the first Ar tonelico, the region of Sol Ciel.

=First Era=

Once a time, there was a great civilization on the world of Sol Ciel. And now, we will be showing you all how the remains of it, the Tower of Ar tonelico, was created.

This wasn't the work of only one man, neither the birth of the love of one man. For my daughter, with love from her father. One song. One feeling. One power...

Story of the Genesis

Everything started when one member of the Tsukikanade discovered the substance called "Songstones". And hidden from his wife, he made a orgel for his daughter, Shurelia, out of Songstones, which ended having mysterious powers. Whenever it was played, it would release particles of light, which covered the surrounding surfaces of where it was positioned. With only looking to that light, all the people began to feel a deep peace. Very soon after that, both father and daughter opened a orgel shop, and since it became very popular very quickly, the man was invited to the capital of the country to lead a investigation focused on the powers that the sounds carry. This man is known to the people of the current era as the Father of Sound Science. Roughly 90 years later, his direct descendant, Eleno, was born, and he was raised having heard during all his life about how great his grandfather was. He went on studying very diligently, since he wanted to keep making progress for the Sound Science, and when he reached the University, he became a very passionate investigator, since he passed his days and nights researching and studying, and in a very short time, his achievements were acknowledged by the government and he was scouted to the National Research Center. His work in there was this one: he was assigned to be the main planner behind the leading edge in Sound Science: the expansion project for the amplification tower of "Ar tonelico". However, the job of the country's rebels was to get rid of him. And, since the investigation was done for military purposes, Eleno wasn't even able to see his family for many days. Because of this, his morale went down each day more, reaching the bottom when this tragedy occurred: his only daughter, Shurelia, died in an accident, which was more than enough to make Eleno resign from the project. Because of his extreme depression, the government offered a idea for the project. The development of a human-like mother brain that could synchronize with the tower perfectly, and could control it as it was part of its body. While Eleno was working in the new project of the floating continent, the [Wings of Horus], he met the artificial life-form Eoria, which was going to be turned soon into the [Administrator] for Ar tonelico. Eleno doubted his eyes when he saw her for the first time. Eolia looked exactly like how his daughter Shurelia was at the time of her death. Then, Eleno began calling her [Shurelia], and began to love her as if she was his own daughter. At the time, thanks to the exceptional feelings carried by the Reyvateils, Shurelia found a special person, and as consequence of that, she learned about what the feeling of love is. With the power of the Sound Science and Ar tonelico as its settings, the small country from the Sol Ciel region, [El Elemia], in a few decades was able to grow and raise its power a lot, which amazed the other countries, since it was unexpected that such a small country could turn out to be so powerful. However, the subjectivity of the world was gripped by the suzerain state of El Duel, from the Sol Cluster region. To end the long war, El Duel dispatched members of the Teru Tribe to do subversive activities in Ar tonelico. But they only ended breaking the main power lines that connected to the Grathnode Discs, causing them to shatter, and provoking the catastrophe known as the Grathnode Inferia.

Important terms and incidents for this time period
Tsukikanade (Moon Chanters)

Previous to the development of the Sound Science, the music was created for praying. To ward off evil, call upon the rain, and praying for good harvests. And thanks to the [Festivals], where there were musical performances and singing, the people received various [powers] to improve their lives. The people built altars in the places where the effects of these powers were stronger, and later on, they built shrines for the altars, however, they were scared of these holy places. Their knowledge and experience were passed on during generations, since only a part of the people could harness the power of sounds, and these people became known as the Moon Chanters, and they were revered like the priests and priestesses of the Gods.

Ar tonelico

Ar tonelico means the Only Divine Tree. Everyone could use the [powers carried by the sounds], however, they wanted to amplify them to increase the power and blessings they could receive from the songs, and for the purpose of building a tower that would amplify that magic, both the Humans and Teru worked together in its construction. The other kind, the Teru, had access to very advanced technologies, and also, learned to harness the powers of magic, and even if they waged war against humans, soon afterwards, they began cooperating with them. The [Magic] that the Teru posses, and the [Science] of the Humans, eventually ended intermingling and uniting with each other. The Science of the Humans alone wouldn't have been enough for creating Ar tonelico, since various of the functions and powers that the tower was going to have couldn't be explained by science alone, and because of that, half of the engineers that planned and supervised the construction of the tower were humans, while the other half were Teru.

Eleno's Daughter

When Eleno was working in the El Elemia Research Institute, he at first was allowed to return home frequently, but with the passing of time, the frequency of his trips back home gradually diminished, making him unable to meet with his beloved daughter, Shurelia, for a long time. And then, tragedy struck when, one day, Shurelia was killed by of a malfunction in the Tower Security Systems. The father quickly returned home since he couldn't get in touch with his daughter... In these times, there weren't many people remaining to control the systems, and until this wasn't solved, the Operation Failures continued. Eleno lost all of his will to live because of this incident.

The Powers of the Songstones

It's a natural law that the music and the songs, via the Songstones, transform into magical power. The higher the quality of the Songstone that is approached to the source of the song, the greater the transformation of the songs and melody in magical effects. When the "Father of Sound Science" used for the first time a Songstone as an alloy, the Songstone absorbed the melody and the feelings he put into it when he crafted them for his daughter, and turned them into particles of light. The Songstones have an small delay before releasing the magical power, and when the needle of the orgel touched its plate, it executed the magical power from the music that was recorded in it. In the researches that came later on, it was possible to create higher quality Songstone crystals, greatly improving their magical transformation capacity. Of course, that also reduced greatly the delay before the release of magical power. However, if these crystals were broken, they would release all the magical power they had accumulated inside at once, making them very dangerous items.

Flowchart for how the Songstones work:

Song (Song) -> Songstone (Transformation) -> Magic (Magical Power)

Grathnode and Parameno

When the Songstones are refined and crystallized, their special characteristics are divided between [Absorption] and [Release]. The crystals that have only Absorption as their special characteristic are called [Parameno], while the ones that have only Release are called [Grathnodes], and in Ar tonelico there are various gigantic discs, 4 for each kind of crystal. The Parameno discs capture and receive any source of magic (such as melodies), which then are sent to the Quantizer (optimization process) and cancels any noises they can have before sending them to the Grathnode discs. When it reaches the Grathnode discs, it's released as magic. For the service form of the sound science, the people sang in special terminals to interact with the Tower, which then would change into embodiments capable of receiving the magical power. Furthermore, the center of the Tower was a Restricted Access area, given that the highest quality Parameno discs are located in there. Also, the little orgel that the "Father of Sound Science" made for his daughter was established and managed as the main power source for the Tower, given that it only continued to play the melody called the "Pure Melody".

Classification and explanation for the Songstone Crystals:

Songstone - Impurities = Songstone Crystal Separation of the Songstone Crystals -> Parameno (Sound Absorbers) & Grathnode (Magic Releasers)

Basic chart for how the Tower creates magic:

Semiconductor Song->Parameno->QT->FT->Ardel Buffer->Grathnode->Magic (Song) (Signal)(Signal)(Signal) (Magical Power) Sound Capture Quantizer Noise Cancel Magical Power Release

Climax of the West War with Sol Cluster

The suzerain state of El Duel, together with other 48 allied nations formed the region of Sol Cluster, and they totally denied the [World Commune Demands Treaty] that El Elemia proposed. In that moment, both countries started a cold war, and after that, El Elemia turned into a small country that had abundance of Songstone reserves, which were the main proposed resources for Ar tonelico, and since they were now enemies, they demanded their removal from Sol Cluster' s signatory nations (allies). This got into light the fact that El Duel had sent a large contingent of the Cluster Allied Forces in a area that was in a radius of 100 km near the core of Ar tonelico, and destroyed a chaff called the Noise Post, whose function was to neutralize the long distance layer of waves of the tower. The only thing that El Elemia could do, since they couldn't continue canceling the effects of these waves, was point them to other direction (to the earth's surface) and send in these strong waves, but the reaction of that strong resonance with the delicate mantle of the planet produced an unexpected result. The earth splinted, and magma and magical sound power gushed out from the cracks, and this enormous wound that was leaved on the earth was called "the Seven Bloodstains". The extent of the area damage was calculated as various thousands of kilometers of diameter, which also triggered great commotion in El Elemia.

The Tower Administrator

After the war, El Elemia decided to seek methods that allowed humans to directly control the Tower, and for that purpose, they created a life-form that had complete synchronity with it, the [Administrator]. Because they already were doing it as part of the "Reyvateil" project, creating beings that were able to contact directly the tower through their songs, the most important role on the project befell on Eleno, who had to connect the nerves of one of the original Reyvateils, Eoria, to the Tower. To complete synchronization with the Tower, he had to Install an absurd number of Grathnode and Parameno crystals inside her body, though he didn't want to do it, given how painful it was for Eoria. The other two Origin Reyvateils that were created during that period of time were transferred to the lands they would have to administrate, and a similar process was used in them to turn them into the Administrators of the other two towers.

*Abilities and Weaknesses of the Reyvateils

The Reyvateils can absorb a special material called Grathnode inside of their bodies to give a boost to their Song Magic. However, forcing them to undergo this process causes a great damage to them. Inside of the bodies of the Reyvateils, there is a mechanism called the LEM* (Life Extending Mechanism). And one part of it is another mechanism called the Checksum, which regulates the flow of magic from the Tower inside of the Reyvateil. The Grathnode Crystals derail the evaluation criteria of the Checksum, allowing the Tower to send more energy than what the organism really needs, which, in the worst cases, usually ends leaking out into the body, causing a great number of health problems


 * The original JP acronym was NEE, but it had to be changed because of the impossibility to find suitable words that conveyed the same meaning.

Origins

The 3 α-type Reyvateils, made for the purpose of being the Tower Administrators. They are artificial life-forms created thanks to Sound Science, and the substances that make up their bodies are the same as proteins of the human body, but their main parts (the Spiritual Wave Frequency = Soul) are made out from Sounds. When they craft and use a Song, they take the resources for its execution directly from Ar tonelico, via the deepest parts of their minds.

β-types

The abilities of the Reyvateils surpassed humans' greatly. Therefore, the government decided to begin researching how to create Reyvateils designed to be used as weapons, the [β-types]. They were mass produced clones of the Origins, and they were deployed in the inner areas of the Tower as important war personnel. Each individual β-type was designed to be equal to the Origins in power and abilities, but actually, their powers were somewhat inferior to the Origins', as their life spans also were.

Hymmnos

There are two kinds of songs that a Reyvateil can sing. These are [Songs that use the power of the Tower to execute magic], and [Songs for Controlling the Tower]. The former are common attack and recovery magic, that any Reyvateil is able to use. The latter are songs capable of system control actions such as rebooting the Tower, and to sing them, the Reyvateil needs to fulfill a special condition. That condition is being registered in the Tower's database, and the proof of that is the Reyvateil having an official identifier called the [Hymn Code]. And for adding new hymns so the Reyvateil can sing them, the Hymn Crystals are used. If a Reyvateil possesses that identifier, agrees to perform the ceremony that requires her Hymn Code, and accepts the song that she is receiving [Hymmnos (Control Song)], she will be able to execute these songs.

Eleno and Shurelia

Eleno called [Eoria] by the name of his beloved lost daughter, and he began loving her from the bottom of his heart, so she could bear the pain of being connected to the Tower. Eleno took Shurelia to play and have fun inside of the Tower, but the area of the core, where the [Orgel of Origins] was, and the route it had for sending energy, was her favorite place, and these excursions always made her happy. Eleno got permission for bringing her to that room whenever he was to connect her to the Tower. That was a small and rustic room made from wood, and surrounded by countless shafts and gears, there was a small disc-type orgel. Shurelia felt so happy when she entered in that room for the first time that she said then her first selfish request [I don't wanna go back]. And that day, they decided to stay in that room for the night. The face that Shurelia had when Eleno gently touched it while she slept was the happiest he had seen on her until now, and he wished with all his heart that she could continue being as happy as she was in that moment. The tower connection took 2 years, and when Shurelia's 6th birthday came, Eleno gave to her an orgel pendant as a present. It played the melody of the Orgel of Origins, the same melody that Eleno's ancestor composed for his daughter on her birthday. Overjoyed, Shurelia hugged Eleno, and began to dance to the rhythm of the pendant's melody, she looked so happy that it sounded as if she asked [How I look? It suits me?]. After that, even if during the connection sessions she couldn't make the Orgel play, at least they became more enjoyable than before. [Even if the connection methods are very painful, I'll do my best for you, dad], when Shurelia said that to Eleno while showing a ear-to-ear smile, it was apparent that they had turned into real father and daughter.

The Grathnode Inferia

Even after the war, Sol Cluster tried many times to destroy the amplification tower Ar tonelico. Still, because of the absolute defense network of the Tower, it was very hard to even approach to the systems that originated magic, and even moreso to destroy them. Because of that, El Duel, to shut down the tower, planned another strategy after the war. They decided to use the Teru that were living in Sol Cluster for this plan, who played a very significant role in the technological advancement of the last years. Using their Teleporting abilities, they easily infiltrated in the inner zone of the tower. 16 Teru, all with important knowledge and skills about the towers, were dispatched. They destroyed the power line that went up to the Grathnode Discs, thinking that would silence Ar tonelico. However, that only was the beginning of the worst tragedy in this world's story. The tower was no longer able to release magical power to the outside, but the power continued spouting out from it. Without a destination, the power went out of control, rendering useless the extremely delicate system that protected the Grathnode Discs, the [Ardelberg Buffer Band], and the resultant atmospheric absorption and sparks quickly caused an overload in the Grathnode Discs. The consequences of this were that the Grathnode Discs shattered to small pieces, and at the same time, the sonic booms impacted the entire world. The released energy formed a Plasma sea, the [Blastline], and the Sonic Boom shattering the land formed the [Sea of Death]. This enormous catastrophe would be known as the "Grathnode Inferia" years later.

=Second Era=

(Still being translated...)