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Warning Spoiler Alert: This article/section contains details about future plotlines of LOTM: Sword of Kings described. Do not proceed unless you want to be spoiled.


"The amount of sacrifice is unavoidable. It takes time and effort to prove someone isn't a demon. And in 2036 we had more than 12 billion people living in the planet. After the World War III this number was reduced to 10 or 9 billion people... Even if the causalities of that war were high, the numbers of humans living in this planet is too high. So it's impossible for STAR LABS keep all of them in check. With the humanity reduced in half thanks to the World War III and the Purge, the next generation of humanity will indeed learn from their past mistakes and a new world of peace and prosperity will born. Wars will cease. Nations and different cultures will no longer exist since the next era of humans will live in love and harmony. But tell me, Kotori, what's going to change by you going around and saving one or two people?​​​​​"
— Mina Harker to Kotori Itsuka

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Example 1

The Purge, also known as Holy WarHumanity's Final War, the Last War, War the End All Wars and Fight For the Survival was a global conflict between the Stabilization Union and STAR LABS of United States of America against the Revelation of Qliphoth and a few countries of KnightWalker Alliance that refused STAR LABS' presence in their territories. It was a brutal conflict that lasted at the end of the year 2036 and ended in 2039 at the Downfall of the 0th Multi-Universe timeline.

The conflict eventually caused the total extermination of all life on Earth and it's considered to be the most shocking, deeply psychological and twisted conflict of LOTM: Sword of KingsLOTM: A Draw of Kings and LOTM: Destiny, serving as the best representation cruel and dark side of humanity in CIS Productions.

Contemporaneously described as "successor of World War III", it led to the mobilization of more than 1 billion military personnel, including 900 million civilians, making it the second largest war in history, only staying behind it predecessor. Unlike any other previous war of history, it was a military conflict between mankind against a new type of unknown life form known as Black Demons, which by consequence also ignited other human conflicts between nations of Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Unbeknownst to most of those involved, the conflict was started by Kaitlyn Powell, maintained, and eventually ended by Vira Hermes and Eclipse of Hermes, whose ultimate goal was the transformation of the Stabilization Union into STAR LABS and bring about the Astaroth Apocalypse. The plan began with the invasion of Sleepy Hollow almost 3 decades ago following the end of the Feast of Apollo that broke the Witch Cult's Impact Zone, a massive moon-like prison that is keeping Kaitlyn sealed for more thousand years. Mina Harker was then revealed to be Ara Astaroth's fragment and worked alongside Qliphoth using Artificial Black Demons to make mankind destroy themselves.

Names[]

In history, religion and political science, a purge is a removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team owners, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an effort is labeled as purging itself. Purges can be either nonviolent or violent; with the former often resolved by the simple removal of those who have been purged from office, and the latter often resolved by the imprisonment, exile, or murder of those who have been purged.

Mina called the purge previously as "Holy War", in reference to humanity fighting against unholy being; demons. But over time, the name was forgotten considering that it will make a direct reference to God, making the scenario where God is actually the one leading mankind in their final war. Mina adopted the word "purge" to show her direct point of view to purge humans that are actually demon, basically wiping out unnecessary humans who are in fact demons disguised in human skin. It's a similar system of genocide but equal to everyone. The Purge focus in people with obsession, fanatical ideologies and odd behaviors that might increase the chance of them becoming demons. 

Chronology[]

The start of the Purge in America is generally held to be 21 December 2036, beginning with the revelation of Black Demons to human society. The dates for the beginning of purge in Europe include the ending of World War III on 25 December 2036.

The exact date of the purge's end is also not universally agreed upon by Ratatoskr (since they are the only ones who remember the conflict). It was generally accepted at the time that the purge ended with the mankind's destruction, rather than the formal defeat of STAR LABS by the Black Demons, which was on 26 September 2037 that officially ended the conflict on Asia. 

Pre-Purge events[]

See Eclipse of Hermes for more information

With the total defeat of the Dark Wizards in their war against Cultus Pythonissam, Vira Hermes formed a group of Dark Wizards who survived and named them as Vanguard of Hermes, an organization that included people that Vira knew from her time at Hell's Universities. Nearly all of those recruited were from Blood Cult and half of them were Dark Wizards and Black Demons who turned their back on Ara Astaroth and Revelation of Qliphoth after Heles' death. However there may have been recruits from traitors of Mana World, rebels from Witch Cult and even from foreign magician schools within the ranks as well.

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A magician using a skull mask

She would later rename the group "the Eclipse of Hermes" once they group that started as a small faction composed of 400 Wizards, demons and warlocks grew up to become a massive organization that could be compared to an earthling empire composed of 40,000,000 of members. Members of the organization Vira deemed to be valuable and faithful would be branded with the Plague Mark. This symbol, a unusual pentagram, was used to summoned her followers at will. Actively gathering an army of Dark Wizards and creatures, with the belief that they might conquer whole worlds in name of Vira but making them part of Revelation of Qliphoth's territory, Vira and her followers planned to overthrow all magicians organizations as Ara herself considered them to be a secondary threat in some worlds. Their ranks were huge, outnumbering the Mana World and Cultus Phytonissam by twenty to one.

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Dark Wizards under the command of Vira

During the foundation of Eclipse of Hermes, the Witch Cult declared war against them for finally joining Astaroth King's army. However, their superiors, the Mana World, denied the existence of the Dark Wizards after their defeat by the hands of the old generation of Cultus Phytonissam.

Now that Eclipse of Hermes was founded, the Eclipses became even bolder in their campaign of terror against the wizarding world. Vira, with his Eclipses, planned several courses of action following the successful assassination of Katya's ministry in 2011. One was the overthrowing of the Ministry of Magic so that Vira would have absolute power. Another was capturing the Goddess Wáng Hangyo and killing her. While Vira went on her own personal quests and stayed out of sight of the wizarding community's eye, she worked through others, starting Ara Astaroth's ultimate plan to put an end to mankind in Prime Earth, the Purge.

Through Vira, Ara Astaroth, who was busy dealing with other business in other worlds, ordered Vira to start the Purge Operation, a mission gave to her to wipe out the humankind on Earth, however, the details  of the mission were wrote by Vira herself. Ara, on the other hand, was not interest in a small planet when there are Gods threatening to end he reign.

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An informant of Eclipse of Hermes disguised as a normal civilian in his daily life

Armed with the advantage of the Mana World's denial, the Eclipses kept a low profile in order to maintain their standing in the wizarding world and slowly but surely rebuild their forces without detection or hindrance. Due in part to the Wang's refusal to remove the Wraiths from Limbo (which was secretly ruled by Astaroth King), the Eclipse of Hermes informally joined the agency of Revelation of Qliphoth's wraiths that was ruling Limbo in secret of Mana World (while Paradise was aware of their presence there) to their cause. Similar progress was made with the giants, vampires, werewolves, elves, folkloric creatures and goblins. 

In 4 May 2011, Vira who was preparing to start the purge's first steps was exposed by Katya, who revealed the Dark Wizards' existence continued strong. Revealed at last to the wizarding community, the Eclipse of Hermes proceeded to resume their earlier lifestyle and behavior. Kidnapping, torturing, and assassinations of wizards, witches, and non-mages began anew as the Second Magician War began. Due to the Mana World's failure to accept the reality of Dark Wizards' return early on, the Eclipses' forces had already grown to the point where the Mana World and Cultus Phytonissam had a very difficult time keeping them in check, made only worse when the Wang Hongyu still cared more about the bureaucracy's reputation than actual security. In a matter of days, massacres of hundreds of non-mages and magic users became something usual as 202 people were founded dead all days.

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Mina meeting Vira

The war continued for almost 2 decades, giving enough distraction for Vira to began the Purge's stages. During those days, Vira was suddenly summoned by a woman on Chicago, United States, the woman revealed herself to be a fragment of Ara Astaroth who was sent to Earth 5 years ago (taking her only 5 year to create a false historic and hundreds of documents of her life) to overview her operations, giving the Vira the hint Ara was actually interested in her operation (even although she could end all life her own powers). The two then discussed the stages of the Purge. 

The first plans of the two began with the extraction of the Noro from Mana World's grounds. Noro are impurities removed from iron sand during the process of purifying of magic (a ritual made to purify a soil from the Blackness' rotting presence). As this substance also contains traces of demonic energy, they are almost indestructible and is instead handled with extreme care. Noro has a special property of easily binding together with itself, which if left unchecked, results in the creation of semi-demons (demidemons).

In their campaign to start the Purge, Vira with the army of Revelation of Qliphoth, sent forth the Black God and his Black Army to attack Veronica in a war that would endure 20 years. Despite the Black Army had many defeats and less victories, Vira was able to extract the Noro from the battlegrounds. Vira and Mina then worked on the creation of Artificial Black Demons, turning humans into proxy Black Demons to obey the command of one single person. They called it as "Old Generation" and were among Mina Harker's first creations. During the recovery of Black Demons' corpses, hundreds of crows were found to have died after feasting on the demon's flesh. Among them were crows that had consumed the flesh and lived, only to mutate into monstrous forms. Mina determined that the flesh and blood of the Black Demons could transform living beings and draw out immense power and so began experimenting on citizens of Sleepy Hollow, where they decided that would be the future HQ of STAR LABS of United States of America. With that, Mina and Vira merged the Noro and the Black Demons' blood and injected them on human bodies.

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Stage 1 of a civilian infected by the Noro

The citizens that underwent these experiments were bestowed the powers of the Black Demons while still retaining their own powers, but were consequently transformed into mindless, grotesque monsters. Despite the experiment yielding incredibly powerful "unified beings", the Old Generation were considered a failure due to being "wild and difficult to control." Mina then worked even more on Noro and injected several samples in her brain in order to be the "Supreme Noro Mother" using nano-machines that could link her to everyone infected with the Noro's liquid. With the Noro in her mind, she could easily "purify" her own individualism and connect her mind to millions of other living being infected with the Noro.

However, since the Noro was from the blood of Red Demons from Triggers Hell, citizens infected with the Noro only gained demonic powers of the demon, "purifying" their humanity and turning them into mere low-level demons. When Vira told Mina about that Astaroth King, her original persona, could control all Black Demons through the Blackness that originated from her body, something that all Black Demons had, Mina came to the conclusion that she needed to work on the Blackness to make it on her own (similar case with Moloch to Twelve Nethers). Working on the Blackness' magical plague, Mina could turn a small fraction of the Blackness by fusing her own DNA and cells with the Blackness, causing that small fraction to obey her. However, with time the Blackness would grow strong, turning people she desired to turn into Black Demons. However, unlike Ara Astaroth's Black Demons that can still think freely, Mina used the Blackness to turn humans in Black Demons by force while using the Noro to control their minds and forming one single mind with everyone she infected.

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Yuri arrives on Mina's secret facility

As her test subjects began to die off, Mina was caught red-handed by Yuri Barnes. Though he knew it was his duty, Yuri Barnes lacked the will to kill her for being a woman and mainly for being a human, allowing her to escape. However, during her escape, Mina was seriously wounded by mages of Witch Cult, but she was saved by Vira and other Dark Wizards, who teleported her to Chicago for the time being.

Seriously wounded, Mina visited the new temple of Eclipse of Hermes to restore her powers and cure her wounds. For 3 weeks, Mina Harker received classes from Vira to learn how to control the Blackness, allowing her to be able to expand her Blackness on the level of medium-class Black Demons, not strong enough to defeat Adeptus Magicians but enough powerful to turn billions and billions of humans into Artificial Black Demons.

Mina then moved to Brazil where she tested her powers on Brazilian citizens, resulting in the creation of New Generations of Artificial Black Demons that were the result of experimentation with the demonic blood (Noro) and Blackness on Brazilians. The Brazilians that were compatible with the blood had their power greatly increased, while those that were incompatible experienced a violent death as their bodies rejected the blood and exploded. Aware of the activity of Mana World, Witch Cult and Cultus Phytonissam, Mina Harker focused her operations in Brazil to turn as many people as possible into Artificial Black Demons using the Researchers of Divine Hand to inject her own blood (merged small portions of Blackness) into the bodies of the guinea pigs kidnapped by Vira's Dark Wizards.

Vira then worked alone on the creation of her army, the Eclipse of Hermes while Mina Harker used her intellect to rise through the ranks of Global Pact Defense in 2013, resulting in the creation of STAR LABS. Meanwhile, in Sleepy Hollow, Vira ordered her Dark Wizards to stand by and live in Sleepy Hollow for the time being until the alarm of the Purge rang on the next decades. Using false identities and historic like Mina Harker, half of the Dark Mages hid themselves in Sleepy Hollow, disguising themselves as citizens while the other half returned to Vira's center of operations, Phenex Airship. With the sudden disappearance of all dark magicians, the Mana World and Cultus Phytonissam declared them as dead since they were serving the Revelation of Qliphoth, an anti-mortal empire that sought the destruction of all non-demonic beings.

During their years hidden, some dark magicians were caught on the crossfire of other internal organizations operating in the town of Sleepy Hollow like Order of FlourishShadow Warriors and Team Witness. However, they were ordered that no matter their situation, they are not allowed to expose their true identity. Violating this law would result in a eternal suffering on Qliphoth or Hell.

Course of the War[]

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Example 2

The Purge began with the domination and destruction of the South America country, Brazil, which was a cataclysmic event caused by the Revelation of Qliphoth, which finally exposed the existence of Black Demons to the world. When the existence of Black Demons was announced to the world thanks by Mina Harker soon after Brazil was conquered by the Revelation of Qliphoth, which resulted in 350,000,000 people stuck inside of the demonic country, the STAR LABS with the help of Tom Bucky, the president of USA, allowed Mina and her faction to take over the SU's nations and giving her emergency powers, starting a purge of demons in most of the countries.

The WWIII, a destructive war that destroyed most of the globe, ended at the same day when Mina Harker rose to power, cancelling all attacks to KnightWalker Alliance in their countries, which brought the ending of Stabilization Union as a consequence. With the SU dissolved, the STAR LABS took all the member countries of the military alliance and added them to their personal forces of anti-demon squads. Mina's campaign also reached the KnightWalker Alliance with the Fallen's Essence allowing Eckidina KnightWalker and his allies to start a purge in their countries fearing that Astaroth King would one day unleash an army of demons inside of his regions.

In a few couple of months, genocides and purges started all over the globe, resulting in millions getting sacrificed by the military and civilians. These purges were most instigated by religious who considered demons to be heretic and against God. And as a consequence, normal people who were thought to be demons were killed and tortured. All society erupts into global chaos as humanity begins killing each other off in an attempt to eradicate the demons when in fact they were killing themselves. The STAR LABS, taking opportunity of the chaos, took over the power of all allied nations of SU to put themselves in charge of their countries, changing the laws, putting bloody dictatorships and removing rights of civilians. Disobeying or even showing a small strange behavior (such as being angry) was enough to grant the civilian an execution for thinking they were a demon. 

It's considered to be the darkest incident and conflict of all history, surpassing the WWIII in levels of cruelty and inhumanity.

Impact[]

1st Timeline[]

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The blackness gains form in Prime Earth

The Purge is the final conflict of mankind, as well its final sin. As such, it's known as the most destructive and violent conflict of the entire 0th Multi-Universe for being a conflict that was not caused through an invasion of an alien empire but a conflict that was created by humans, which eventually wiped out the said race from face of the planet.

Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded but eventually every human passed away in the following decades. Most suggest that some 9 billion people died in the war. After human civilization was gone due to the nuclear bombs of STAR LABS and Black Demons' rampage, many other millions had actually managed to survive hiding in underground cities and abandoned underwater military bases.

The suffering, death and chaos was so intense during the its final days that the Blackness had gained form, taking form after the entire planet was consumed by the Blackness. Soon, the Blackness created by the conflict was gathered by Vira Hermes, forming infamous destroyer of world known as the Darkness (an antagonist that was suppose to appear only 5 billion years later in-universe of LOTM: Destiny). 

It's said that at least 200,000,000 humans survived the war but were forced to live in a post-apocalyptic dominated by Black Demons. The few remaining human died because of deliberate genocide of Black Demons (that were now stronger than ever), massacres between groups of survivors, diseases, and starvation for the lack of natural resources and food. The planet continued to exist but it would never come back to its natural form as the Black Demons continued to reign over the planet for centuries. After 300 years, all human's construction and legacy of mankind was engulfed by the dust of planet, burying the history of humanity.

2nd Timeline[]

The Purge was worldwide conflict, however, when the Goddess Nu Wa, came to Earth 500 years after the end of the Purge, she returned Earth back on time to prevent this beautiful world from being destroyed and corrupted.

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Katarina fighting Mina

When she did so, only one person remembered what happened, and it was Katarina Couteau, who was doomed to stay forever as Red Moon Tyrant, ruling the destroyed Earth as one of Ara Astaroth's minions, and Vira's sexual partner. Despite her occupation, Red Moon Tyrant had actually being forced to serve the Revelation of Qliphoth after she killed her best friend, Imperia Deamonne, making some of Katarina's emotions take over her mind. This allowed Nu Wa to contact her and make a contract with her to go back in time and slay Mina Harker before she could expose the existence of Black Demons to the world.

Due to Nu Wa's time traveling's powers, no one in the Omniverse except for Katarina and Nu Wa remembers that Prime Earth was once destroyed and conquered by Black Demons. Before Mina could arrive in the TV broadcast studios, Katarina (now free from Vira's control) fought her and exposed her true identity as a Black Demon before defeating her and ending the Downfall of the 0th Multi-Universe before it could even start. As a result, the Purge never began as the humans infected with Mina's noro continued to be humans. 

In this timeline, Vira and her forces never invaded Rio de Janeiro as they were forced to retreat since Mina was now dead and could no longer active the signal to make all infected humans into Artificial Black Demons. Other changes also happened;

  • the STAR LABS' crimes were exposed to GPD and was dissolved, resulting in all its members being arrested for crimes against humanity;
  • the World War III continued without interference;
  • he New World Order continued active and controlling most of the war;
  • human race never discovered the existence of Black Demons;
  • Vira's plans were ruined;
  • the Eclipse of Hermes never invaded Sleepy Hollow in 2013 (from 2037 to 2013); 
  • Ratatoskr continued existing;
  • Katarina's Red Moon Tyrant never awakened;
  • humanity continued to prevail;
  • Eckidina KnightWalker never went insane after Michael Langdon's betrayal;
  • Otaku Eckidina was sent back to Eckidina's mansion to live merely as a disposable clone (but it did not prevent her from forming her own agenda later);
  • Imperia and the rest of all the Rogues never died;
  • Fraxinus was never destroyed;
  • the war between the Revelation of Qliphoth and Cultus Pythonissam continued in secret of mankind;
  • The Darkness was never born (only born after 5 billion years);
  • Artificial Black Demons never came to existence following Mina's death;
  • Echidna Bathory never became a war criminal;

Basically, only Katarina and Nu Wa remembers of what happened in the previous timeline. Due to the nature of the timeline, Katarina never said about what happened back then to the rest of her friends.

Masterminds behind the War[]

  • Kaitlyn Powell
  • Vira Hermes
  • Ara Astaroth
    • Astaroth King
    • Mina Harker
  • Echidna Bathory
  • Felix Drake
  • Kalawarner
  • Shalba
  • Seilah
  • Jerome
  • Wizzro
  • Lilithmon
  • Heldalf
  • Symonne
  • Emeraude
  • Aversa

Combatants[]

STAR LABS[]

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Alphabetical list

A[]

  • Afghanistan
  • Albania
  • Algeria
  • Andorra
  • Angola
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Argentina
  • Armenia
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Azerbaijan

B[]

  • Bahamas
  • Bahrain
  • Bangladesh
  • Barbados
  • Belarus
  • Belgium
  • Belize
  • Benin
  • Bhutan
  • Bolivia
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Botswana
  • Brazil
  • Brunei
  • Bulgaria
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi

C[]

  • Cabo Verde
  • Cambodia
  • Cameroon
  • Canada
  • Central African Republic (CAR)
  • Chad
  • Chile
  • China
  • Chronos Empire
  • Colombia
  • Comoros
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Republic of the Congo
  • Costa Rica
  • Cote d'Ivoire
  • Croatia
  • Cuba
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • D
  • Denmark
  • Djibouti
  • Dominica
  • Dominican Republic

E[]

  • Ecuador
  • Egypt
  • El Salvador
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Estonia
  • Ethiopia

F[]

  • Fiji
  • Finland
  • France

G[]

  • Gabon
  • Gambia
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Ghana
  • Global Pact Defense
  • Greece
  • Grenada
  • Guatemala
  • Guinea
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Guyana

H[]

  • Haiti
  • Honduras
  • Hungary

I[]

  • Iceland
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Italy

J[]

  • Jamaica
  • Japan
  • Jordan

K[]

  • Kazakhstan
  • Kenya
  • Kiribati
  • Kosovo
  • Kuwait
  • Kyrgyzstan

L[]

  • Laos
  • Latvia
  • Lebanon
  • Lesotho
  • Liberia
  • Libya
  • Liechtenstein
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg

M[]

  • Macedonia
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Malaysia
  • Maldives
  • Mali
  • Malta
  • Marshall Islands
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius
  • Mexico
  • Micronesia
  • Moldova
  • Monaco
  • Mongolia
  • Montenegro
  • Morocco
  • Mozambique
  • Myanmar (Burma)

N[]

  • Namibia
  • Nauru
  • Nepal
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Nicaragua
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Norway

O[]

  • Oman

P[]

  • Pakistan
  • Palau
  • Palestine
  • Panama
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Paraguay
  • Peru
  • Philippines
  • Poland
  • Portugal

Q[]

  • Qatar

R[]

  • Romania
  • Russia Resistance
  • Rwanda

S[]

  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • Saint Lucia
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Samoa
  • San Marino
  • Sao Tome and Principe
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Senegal
  • Serbia
  • Seychelles
  • Sierra Leone
  • Singapore
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Solomon Islands
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • South Korea
  • South Sudan
  • Spain
  • Sri Lanka
  • Sudan
  • Suriname
  • Swaziland
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Syria

T[]

  • Taiwan
  • Tajikistan
  • Tanzania
  • Thailand
  • Timor-Leste
  • Togo
  • Tonga
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Tunisia
  • Turkey
  • Turkmenistan
  • Tuvalu

U[]

  • Uganda
  • Ukraine
  • United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  • United Kingdom (UK)
  • United States of America (USA)
  • Uruguay
  • Uzbekistan

V[]

Y[]

  • Yemen

Z[]

  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

KnightWalker Alliance[]

GHQ logo

Astaroth's Forces[]

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Theme Song[]

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Metal Gear Solid V Quiet's Theme (Special Edition)

Gallery[]

Symbolism and Moral Lesson (1st person)[]

In general[]

Once Mina reveals the existence of demons, people—as well as entire countries—are quick to turn on one another. Imperia and her friends from Witch Cult, seemingly become the last vestiges of hope for humanity, embodying pure compassion, love, and empathy. But when Kotori Itsuka is violently stabbed in the back by another human and Imperia sees her lifeless head bobbing up and down on a stick, it symbolizes the end of people being people. They have become the very demons they were afraid of.

In broad strokes, the story is a damning portrait of the worst we can be: violent, selfish, and unkind. But, before everything goes to hell, some of the most memorable moments arise out of genuine love and decency. Kyouko Kirigiri, for example, breaks down as she watches Rentaro Satomi turn into a demon and consume her friend Gwen—but she's unable to shoot him. In another scene, Imperia jumps in front of humans being tortured by other humans and gets rocks thrown at her, but a young boy walks up and hugs her leg, which leads to others putting down their weapons and hugging her. After all that, Asuha Chigusa posts on social media about how pure of heart Imperia actually is despite her near-psychotic behavior, which inspires others to have the courage to reveal themselves as Jikininki and fight the demons alongside Imperia.

We should strive to imitate such courageous acts in our lifetime, protecting others when they’re in pain or showing support of marginalized communities with something as simple as a social media post. The Jikininki, who are humans despite having something thrust upon them that’s out of the norm, represent POC, women, LGBTQ people—any minority group, really. Society is quick to turn on them, but the purge urges humans to find the humanity in everyone, regardless of our differences.

Evil[]

An important aspect of the Purge is its focus on the idea evil. Asking what it is, where it is, and how it applies. From the beginning demons are introduced as evil. The only ones you see seem to be hell bent on destruction and death and harm of humans. But this tone shifts as it goes on. In the middle you are asked whether demons can feel love. With the one who denies this ironically doing so because he denies his own ability to feel it. 

In a big way this leads to a deconstruction of the idea of an "vile" race. Even if a species seems irrevocably dangerous from our perspective, that alone doesn't tell us anything about how to proceed. This dangerous seeming race still exists, and lives with its own hopes and dreams. Actually, other demonic characters like Oriax Wheelahr is what destroy the concept that all demons are evil. In fact, demons are only evil because they were born and raised in a destructive and cold environment.

This ties in to questions of nature. Is the idea of an evil race even coherent? The standards we see as bad are bad from our perspective, but if they are an irrevocable fact of their nature, then the negatives may be something its simply not possible for them to avoid. Would that mean they don't deserve their own right to exist as a species? How could something like that be approached? Note of course that demons are described as being tied to nature. And the revelation that they can learn love can go to story that regardless, they may be possible to change. Note that the evil you see them doing in the story is for them taking place during what they consider wartime. They are fighting for their very survival against both humans and angels. And the demoralization of war that humans would face later in the series may have already set in for them. Making it misled to judge them based on what was seen already.

This ties in to the questions of humans facing their own morality. The existence of so radically different a species that seems to be internally consistent can force us to call into question how many of our own moral standards are constructs that don't adequately reflect moral action. Doubly so because once humans became demoralized by the realities of their war against demons they became no better. The evil within humans and human existence was brought to the forefront, until the point at which they were totally devoid of civilization, and humans were no better than demons.

Crisis of Identity[]

Another important facet of the Purge is the crisis of identity. Not just for who you are as an individual, but for who you are as a member of your species. At the end, humans are forced to consider what it means to be human. The story is introduced with demons as evil and humans as neutral (considering the previous incarnations of villains such as Carl Robinson). But as it goes on this is called more and more into question, showing the depths that humans can sink to, as well as the reasoning behind the actions of the demons.

On the individual level, you also have it show this type of crisis of calling into question who you are. After people transforms into a Black Demon, they becomes aware of the fact that this irrevocably changes them. They now has demonic drives. Ones that are not easy to control, and involve heavy aggression. While they maintains his desire to be human, and to protect their humanity, there is always this tension between their natures. The purge's arc version focuses more on this, and the ramifications of trying to remain a human when having a demon body. 

Overcoming Nature[]

Another thing it focuses on is nature, and the ability to over come it. Demons represent primal nature. Being in tune with the earth, and living a lot like animals, but with more intelligence. They are considered dangerous, but humans are revealed to have a darker side to their nature as well. A question is given about whether demonic nature can be overcome. The Jikininki are always facing against their own nature. It pulls them to do things that their human heart rejects, or wants to temper. And so the struggle between these aspects is a core staple of the story. 

But besides this, as shown above, it calls into question whether demons themselves could not rise above. The nature seen of them is something that even they are shown to be able to have aspects better than. Human nature is also shown to be weak and easily swayed. But while that fact can be used for evil, it can also be used to unite for good. 

Control[]

Another major theme is the theme of control. What can you control, and how well can you control it. In keeping with the theme of war is hell, an ultimate message is that some things will be outside of your control. Mina tells Kotori Itsuka that in a worldwide demon invasion, even if she fights she cannot fight all of them. Kotori sees this as pessimistic, but in a sense it is true. You cannot control everything, only add to the level of outcome.

Humanity in general shows a theme of lack of control on a different level. Humanity sought to protect itself, but couldn't even maintain its own internal coherency. In the end, most damage done to humans was done by humans themselves out of fear of demons. They were shown a lack of control, and this led to a spiral of fear. They couldn't keep themselves from turning into demons, so they feared this loss of agency, and how difficult it made it to target and stop the demons.

Optimism and Pessimism[]

Ultimately, the purge shows a sliding scale of optimism and pessimism. While the purge's ending shows a bit more pessimistic of a tone, one that is made more explicitly optimistic for the story even in light of both humans and demons being wiped out. The purge highlights this showing both Imperia convincing people to come to their senses and not to kill other humans, and Asuha helping unite the Jikininki (people who became demons but were not dominated by them), even before her own death. Despite the ultimate outcome, and overtly pessimistic aspect, it has elements that show what can be improved as well. Through the means of working together, understanding others, and being ready to solve the problems before they get out of control.

Out-grouping and mob mentality[]

An aspect of the evil shown of humanity is the tendency to out-group and to think using a mob mentality. Even earlier in the story, it implies that Katarina may be seen as odd, due to being red-haired in a Japanese society, and stereotyping her a some kind of emo.

Later this is shown to tie into the mob mentality. Humans start turning on each other. And the way it shows this is meant to parallel real world versions of this. First they stereotype a certain group they think is at fault. But over time, there is motive decay where the targets start to aim at anyone not in the in-group. It shows how people, originally afraid of demons move to target even other humans who are dissatisfied with society. Showing a targeting of the out-group as a whole, and even those dissatisfied with the system. Basically disguising their xenophobia and racism behind their so-called "anti-demonic" feeling.

Trivia[]

  • The term "purge" is often associated with Stalinism and the Purge from CIS Productions took inspiration in the said event. While leading the USSR, Joseph Stalin imprisoned in Gulag-labor camps and executed, i.e. purged, "wreckers", or citizens accused of plotting against Communism. Stalin initiated the most notorious of the CPSU purges, the Great Purge, during the 1930s.
  • The Purge is the catalyst event of LOTM: Shadows Within Shadows since the main protagonist of the story died during this conflict and was teleported to another world.
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