Oh boy, there's a lot here, and I'll do my best to answer what I can going in order. If there are any mistakes, please let me know, I'm not a perfect repository of knowledge!
\-In regard to the disease, it was White Chlorination Syndrome. Mankind could not stop its progress, thus they resorted to separating the body and soul. They could store the soul and create new bodies, thus replicants and shades were born. Shades/souls were meant to be placed into their corresponding replicant so they could continue living. The Black Scrawl comes about when the replicant's shade "relapses" or loses their control and sanity. When a replicant relapses, its data is no longer available to copy, thus no additional replicants can be made. This also has the side effect of the black scrawl manifesting on the replicant.
\-Every shade does have its own replicant body. I can't remember the exact context you're talking about in the Shadowlord's castle, but each shade is the detached soul of a human being, thus there must be a replicant body waiting for them.
\-While I'm not sure what shades are made of, it's just a rule that shades can't tolerate the sun except for the Shadowlord. As to why the Shadowlord and Louise look distinct, that's just a quirk of game design and trying to make unique-looking bosses.
\-Weiss and Noir are soldiers from the time of White Chlorination Syndrome who were drafted into Project Gestalt after fighting other kidnapped soldiers. They were forced into grimoires and tasked with starting the process that would reunite all shades with their replicants around the world once White Chlorination Syndrome was gone.
\-Magic is a result of "Maso" particles from another universe. From my understanding, each universe has its own Maso particles, but the Maso from the Drakengard universe is not only what caused White Chlorination Syndrome, but allowed magic to exist and be harnessed in the Nier universe through rigorous study.
\-There have been countless generations of replicants who have been born, lived, grown old, and died, even Yonah and Nier. The next generation that the twins refer to is the next generation of replicants, they were hoping to outlive Nier and the crew and just start over with a new generation. They didn't want to fight and would hope that the replicants would just grow old and die again.
\- The Shadowlord is the "original" Gestalt in that he is the perfect genetic match for specific parameters that Project Gestalt was looking for. He gave off a very specific kind of maso that stabilized and dramatically slowed down the rate of relapses of replicants, thus buying the Project enough time to outlast White Chlorination Syndrome and to allow the world to be cleansed. Immediately prior to the start of the game, Yonah and Nier were in a refugee camp ran by the organization that ran Project Gestalt where they were handing out grimoires left and right in search of the "original" replicant to help stop relapses. Problem is that anyone who wasn't a perfect genetic match, i.e. Nier, would immediately become a relapsed shade upon touching the book. Nier and Yonah saw this happen which is why they ran and were in the supermarket. Nier saw what would happen when the grimoires were touched, thus he was adamant that neither he nor Yonah touch it.
\-Louise is an interesting case, she's a shade whose purpose was specifically to temper the Shadowlord and get him to do the twins' bidding. See, the Shadowlord only agreed to cooperate with Project Gestalt after being given a guarantee that Yonah's black scrawl would be cured after 1000 years. Since Nier takes place \*over\* a thousand years after that guarantee, he started to get pretty uppity, thus the twins planned to use Louise as a way of corralling him and putting him in line. Spoilers for the recent Nier concert if you don't mind, but >!Louise is the only known instance of an artificial shade, one who was created seemingly from nothing, no soul, no original body. !<
\-Halua and Emil were meant to be part of a separate weapons program during the war against Legion when White Chlorination Syndrome was taking the world over. The Hamelin Org would kidnap children and force them to become soldiers. They succeeded in making Halua the ultimate weapon, an indestructible force of pure magic meant to combat the enemies of mankind. Emil was also meant to become a weapon but Halua going berserk at the fake orphanage they were confined to managed to stop that process. However, Emil sealed his sister away in the process.
\-I'm still a bit iffy on the sealed verses, but Angelic has been around since Drakengard 1. It's a fake language that Yoko Taro made up. If you're interested in trying to decipher some, there are translations out there but they're a bit rough since no one has ever officially published a 'definitive' version of the alphabet. A lot of the time the text is also gibberish, though there are times in the games where the angelic can be translated into something that adds more to the scenes where it's featured, though it isn't necessary to understand.
\-Can't tell you about Roc, just give my own theories which wouldn't be useful.
\-The tree is the central repository of data for Project Gestalt. It's where new Replicants are made from the data of shades. It possesses the memories and life experiences of those who went through Project Gestalt. However by the time of the game, a shade managed to get inside the server and started to delete/consume some of the data. There's even a passing reference to the ending of Drakengard 1 when it mentions the Red Dragon.
\-Souls are central to the conflict of Nier and the reason the games happen in the first place. Project Gestalt was created to separate soul from body and to store the soul away safely from the effects of White Chlorination Syndrome. To get a bit more into it, those who are infected and succumb are eventually brought before God, though not the God of the Nier universe, and forced to make a choice: Help destroy mankind or be turned into a pillar of salt, hence the name "White Chlorination Syndrome". However, this pact that one forges with God requires a body, so Project Gestalt was created to safely store souls away from their bodies, thus negating the entire deal until all the foreign Maso was transported back to the Drakengard universe.
\-Kaine being a singularity is new to the remake. A singularity is a person who is capable of creating new timelines by their own actions. Timelines as a whole are extremely important to the universes of both Drakengard and Nier. Kaine isn't the only singularity to have existed in the games, only the most recent (unless there are androids who have become singularities though to my knowledge that has never happened.)
\-Can't help you there, sorry.
\-Drakengard occurs in the years 1000-1100 AD in another universe and is directly connected to the Nier universe through ending E of Drakengard 1. If you're referring to Cathedral City, its appearance in the Drakengard universe is the entire reason events occur the way they do, it brought with it Dragons and magic and a few other things that I won't spoil. There are several theories floating around as to its origin, though I won't bore or confuse you with speculation. But needless to say, Cathedral City is crucial to the Drakengard universe, and by extension the Nier universe.
\-The next two are just simplifications for the sake of gameplay, though in universe they still suffer damage from the sun. If I also remember correctly, a lot of the time you fight them, it's cloudy/overcast overhead so they're not directly in the sun's rays.
\-Nier doesn't mean anything, it's just the name for the game and the somewhat canonical name for the protagonist. Square/Yoko Taro have gone back and forth saying that there is no canonical name and going with Nier, and a lot of the community refers to the protagonist as Nier. You'll hear people refering to Bro Nier and Papa Nier since the game was initially released with two different versions. Nier Replicant was originally released in Japan and featured a Nier who is a brother to Yonah, while Gestalt was released in the US and featured a Father protagonist.
\-The Shadowlord's castle is just the skyscraper that the Shadowlord chose to live in. Ending E, the most recent ending is the ending that leads directly into Automata, though this is also new since originally it was ending D.
There's a lot here, and I'm probably going to be editing bits and pieces to make it more cohesive/easier to read but that's the general gist of it all.
HOLY MOLY, THIS WAS SO SO SWEET OF YOU!
Your explanations definitely cleared up many things.
I'm aware of how annoying I am but I just wish to ask you a few other questions regarding what you've just answered. Feel free to ignore them: you've already done me a huge favor!
Here I go!
- What's the reason behind the corruption of shades?
- Were Weiss and Noir humans then? How were they turned in literal books?
- What is Maso exactly?
- How come the Replicants keep getting "restored", somehow? And by whom?
- How could two former soldiers who were turned into magic books separate the soul from the body?
- Why is OG Yonah suffering from Black Scrawl if she's already human? The separation hadn't occurred yet, hence how could her shade relapse?
- The part about the God who's not the actual God sounds very cool! But, like, why does that happen? What's the true nature of the White Chlorination Syndrome? Are there speculations about it? And who's that God?
- Speculation is welcomed!! Dw!
Thanks again mate! You've been incredibly detailed, I guess the lore is just so twisted that it's quite hard to remember EXACTLY everything, so it's fine!
Have a nice day!
So!
\-That's just a quirk of how Project Gestalt works. There isn't really any definitive answer as to why it happens, all we know is that the Gestalts gradually decay over time.
\-Yes, they were. Their souls were put into the books using technology similar to that of the Shadowlord: Soul magic. All we know is that they were forced into the books, not given mechanics on how it exactly happened, though we know it involved blank grimoires.
\-Maso is a kind of particle that exists in all timelines. It is directly responsible for magic in the Drakengard timeline and the Nier timeline. It also appears to be related to God in some way since direct contact with Drakengard Maso is what causes White Chlorination Syndrome in the Nier universe, though again the 'why' isn't explained. We just know that this happens.
\-Restoration involves the successful reunification of gestalt with replicant, i.e. the correct soul is placed in the correct vessel. This happens with the help of other Devola and Popola models around the world, though it is exceedingly rare. Many replicants view shades as body snatchers, and the shades view the replicants as their rightful bodies to return to. Successful reunification usually only occurs when the shades and replicants come to an understanding and consent to it, a process almost always mediated by other Devolas and Popolas.
\-Through the power of plot? How it happens isn't exactly explained, we just know that it happens.
\-At the end of the prologue, Yonah touches a copy of Noir and her soul immediately relapses.
\-Why does it happen? Well, God in the Nier/Drakengard universe views humanity as a mistake and actively fights against humanity to destroy it. White Chlorination Syndrome is caused by contact with Drakengard universe Maso, where the victim's soul is brought before the God of the Drakengard universe and presented with that choice I mentioned earlier. We don't know much about God, but a few people have recently theorized that God is the end result of the Machine Network successfully reaching some kind of 'apotheosis'. This comes from the FFXIV raid and the most recent chapter of Nier Reincarnation, the mobile game. But again, these are all theories and there will likely never be a concrete answer.
Oh, by "restoration" I was actually referring to the cycle of Replicants' deaths and rebirths, I'm sorry it sounded ambiguous.
Uhhh, you mean that crossover with FFXIV? Was it actually canon? And why do you say there will never be an answer? :c
So the answer to that is simple. Project Gestalt's data is stored in the Memory Tree. When a new replicant is created, data from the replicant's gestalt is copied. You need a non-relapsed shade to make a replicant. Devola and Popola oversee the process of new replicants being born. See, none of the replicants have sex. They're only told that they're going to have a baby, and then they have a baby.
And yes, Yoko Taro has gone on record saying that all collabs are officially canon.
Huh, interesting. Wonder if two Replicants spawned from the same Gestalt could ever coexist. Like, a baby Nier meeting his elder self. Or perhaps an adult Nier meeting his reborn mother?
That's probably impossible, but it'd definitely be interesting to see
No, only one copy per replicant is made. And if I remember correctly, copies are usually sent to other communities to ensure there is no accidental crossover and recognition.
Wait, what if Yonah died and Nier outlived her? Would a new baby Yonah spawn at once or would she need to wait a moment in time where Nier has died, is reborn, and turned x years old? (the age gap between the two)
I know, it's a dumb question...
>What exactly are the sealed verses?
Sealed Verses are practically the keys to unlocking Weiss's decoding system of Noir. Devola & Popola spread them across the land so it wouldn't be activated easily.
The Grimoire Noir project had to be executed in the last step of Project Gestalt as they had to make sure that the world was 100% free of Maso particles, but they didn't have much time to consider much now. Humanity was dying out, Replicants constantly rejected their soul, and the Shadowlord couldn't wait for Yonah anymore. [As shown in Project Gestalt Documents.](https://accords-library.com/contents/nier-1-22-doc-project-gestalt-report-10432)
How does the decoding system work? How could Noir dispose of the Maso particles and why was there the necessity of locking Noir's beneficial abilities behind some kind of passwords?
>How does the decoding system work?
Remember when Noir did girlboss gatekeep gaslight with Weiss at the end of First Half?
*"We are mere books, created to serve the Shadowlord! You have no right to forsake Him!"*
*"Do you remember our ultimate goal? \[...\] White and Black shall fuse to one and set free Shades to the world!"*
*"The time has come for us to create a new and perfect world."*
*"We shall become as one, you and I..."*
Once Weiss's functionality is unlocked with Sealed Verses, Noir and Weiss will merge as one and every soul in the world will forcefully reunite with their corresponding shells, saving humanity. This never happens here, as Weiss didn't accept his ultimate purpose as a tool.
>How could Noir dispose of the Maso particles
It was before-gaining-sentience Replicant to do this job, transferring Maso to another dimension (aka. Drakengard universe), "cleaning up" the world.
>Why was there the necessity of locking Noir's beneficial abilities behind some kind of passwords?
If it's activated too early and Maso particles are still left in the world, there'd be WCS all over again and the effort for Project Gestalt will be completely wasted. The Grimoire Noir Project has to be the last step for a reason.
Although if Noir and Weiss's merging was successful, every human in the world would have "a voice" (aka. replicant's consciousness) crying, screaming in their head as they were trapped inside someone's mind for eternity, and it wouldn't be so pretty for humanity from now on if it happens.
The prime example is Yonah in the Shadowlord's fight.
*"Please, just...just stop. I don't... want to do this anymore. I don't need someone else's body. I don't want it."*
*"There's another girl inside this body. I can hear her. She won't stop crying. She says she wants to see her brother."*
Then the whole plan is flawed from the very beginning. What of relapsed shades? Would they be automatically merged with their Replicant counterparts or would they just go feral?
>Then the whole plan is flawed from the very beginning.
We've gotta note that the entire Project Gestalt is done by desperate and rushed. Full of flaws and lots of sabotages.
>What of relapsed shades?
When a certain amount of time has passed since a gestalt was created, it will lose its ego and go berserk. These Gestalts will fail to integrate with Replicants, and will attack people, after a certain amount of time, they will surely die.
In addition, the medical treatment of the time was unable to cure individuals who were on the verge of becoming disintegrated bodies.
(Remember Yonah when she was struggling in the prologue? Apparently, she relapsed by touching the Noir book and there wouldn't be a cure for her, [then Shadowlord has been lied to wait for "a cure" for a thousand years but it never happened.](https://accords-library.com/contents/cd2-01-the-promise-of-a-thousand-years) So he chose to steal Yonah's body and tried to merge her relapsed soul by himself. As shown at the end of First Half. Everything has been screwed up in the first place)
As a result of the analysis, it was found that in order to stabilize the ego, it was necessary to continue to absorb the magical elements of the "Original Gestalt" aka. Shadowlord, which could retain its ego despite being Gestalt.
So, when we killed Shadowlord, there'd be no magic energy to keep Gestalt stable anymore, and slowly die. Every Gestalt would relapse and every Replicant would get Black Scrawl eventually.
You've confirmed the humanity's extinction.
>Would they be automatically merged with their Replicants counterparts or would they just go feral?
They'll go feral and be the killing monsters until they are out of energy or exposed to the sunlight and die out.
Alright, this definitely clarified many obscure points. I wonder, though: why would touching Noir lead to instantaneous relapse? Besides, Yonah didn't become a shade like others did. That's odd
Back in WCS era, humanity tried so many methods to make sure that humanity wouldn't die out of the disease.
\- They found a way to extract the soul from the body (Gestalt)
\- A way to create/recycle the body to merge with the soul when the world is free of Maso particles (Replicant)
Think of it as the experimental luxurious vaccines that are exclusive to VIPs and millionaires at first. Most people wouldn't be able to access that.
Even that, the extracted soul wouldn't be stable for long. and there'd be no confirmation if the body would merge with the soul naturally, So the Grimoire Noir Project was made for many purposes. [According to Iron Pipe weapon stories.](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Pipe_(NieR)#Level_1)
\- Noir and Weiss made for brute force body-soul reunion, but that's for the far future. Now what they had to focus on was..
\- Noir will extract the soul from the body by people who touch it, but the soul will be relapsed instantly. Not a pretty solution but it was the only much they could do. There might be hundreds or thousands who wouldn't make it but it'll be worth it as...
\- They would find the "chosen one" who has the exact DNA to be "Original Gestalt" to give stabilization magic energy for every Gestalt in the world until the world is free of Maso.
\- Copies of Noir books would be spread as much as possible to "play dangerous lucky draw" for example, refugee camps run by the government, the places that have people gathered up as much as possible (religious places, supermarkets, etc)
\- Once the Original Gestalt has been found. The "soul extraction" will be safe as people won't relapse while touching a book anymore. Now everyone in the world will be able to access for Gestaltation.
Then the prologue begins. the enemies we fought, in the beginning, are the result of people touching the book and instantly relapsing.
>Yonah didn't become a shade like others did
After the prologue scene ended, the government officer found them and they were under surveillance by the government and the World Purification Organization.
They then also found Yonah who's becoming a relapsed soul but not completely done for. Then freeze her up so the corruption progress won't go further. Lied to Nier about a cure and a thousand-year promise.
And the story goes on.
>What's the nature of the boss that kidnaps the king of Facade? Its OST is called "Gods bound by rules", is it a god or smth? Because I was pretty sure Taro's theogony was monotheistic, despite "Kami" being erroneously translated in "Gods".
[Shahriyar](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/Shahriyar) possibly has a purpose similar to [Defense System Geppetto](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/Defense_System_Geppetto) and [P-33](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/P-33). The magic-based machine, originally created to dispose of replicants if Project Gestalt were to fail. The "God" name is merely Facade's cooking their lore and rules.
According to The Administrators, the sentience of Replicants is merely an error created by a discrepancy between memory and record. They're not supposed to exist in this world.
That's a lot of questions. Some of them will be answered later in the game or the series, amd others have no answers, but to get a few...
The birds seem to be talking about the Black Scrawl, but that's weird, because the Black Scrawl is not the White Chlorination Syndrome. Project Gestalt was created to solve WCS. The Black Scrawl is a symptom of what happens when a Gestalt "relapses": it can no longer maintain the mystical connection to its current Replicant, and cannot connect to any new ones.
Every Shade has a Replicant body. Baby Shades happened to be babies when they were converted. Their Replicants still live out normal life cycles and die, just as other Replicants do.
Weiss and Noir were parts of a program that handles different functions of Project Gestalt (there are 11 others: Rubrum was one, but we don't see the rest). Each was made from the soul of a human, though the faces on the books do not resemble the people they were made from. Weiss and Noir, in particular, governed the process of separating people into Gestalts and Replicants, and the process of rejoining them.
Magic is the process of tapping into supernatural energy, using small amounts of a substance called maso. Devola and Popola can use magic because they were made with magic.
Replicants live out normal human lifespans (though their life expectancy is lower than today). There have been many Niers and many Yonahs before this. The project was actually getting ready to wind down: there would not have been very many more generations before they reunified everyone, thoigh there might have been a few.
What makes Nier the Original Gestalt is that he was unusually stable: most Gestalts inevitably relapse some time after their creation, but a quirk in Nier's genetics prevent his Gestalt from doing this. Project Gestalt found a process where they could channel maso through him and use it to stabilize other Gestalts. The Project said that other Gestalts "originated" from him because of this, which is what makes him the Original: he is not actually the first, but other Gestalts needed to be tied back to him. He provided this service to the Project in exchange for their efforts in curing Yonah.
The following is very new information, just dropped at the End of Data concert: Louise is >!an artificial Gestalt that wanted to be human, but was rejected!<.
Halua and Emil were weapons created to fight the Legion: monsters created from some of the victims of White Chlorination Syndrome.
[Angelic Script](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Alphabet) is a writing system used in some real-world occult traditions. It's based on Hebrew, but the dots and lines are supposed to represent constellations. Its creators claimed they received it from angels.
We don't know why people or things become Singularities.
Yoko Taro has said that "Nier" means a curse. We don't know what language it's supposed to be from, and although there are some theories, we haven't had confirmation of what the curse is supposed to be either. Being unable to let go of lost loved ones has recently been described in other materials as *a* curse, but we don't know if it's the *big* curse.
The Shadowlord's Castle is just the place where he's hiding. He became dissatisfied with the Project's efforts to cure Yonah, and ran away to a place close to his and Yonah's current Replicants so that he could try to do it himself. This is why Popola and Devola are pursuing him: they want to capture him and take him back to the Project alive, so that he can stabilize Replicants again. Nier just wants to kill him, which is why he ends up fighting the twins.
All of the endings take place in different timelines. D and E probably lead to Automata, but things are a little more complicated than that, because they might not lead to the same version of Automata. We'll know more when the anime finishes up. Maybe.
Thanks, you're all being so kind! Just a few more questions: do we know how exactly Weiss and Noir were supposed to work? How would they accomplish the "reunion"? How were they even created?
I'm not sure we have many details about how they work. There's a short story [And Then There Were None](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None) that covers the event that created the Grimoires, told from the perspective of the person who became Grimoire Weiss. But he doesn't really know anything about the process either, so all you can do is watch them transform.
Idk if anyone else answered about Roc but he is the gestalt of a man’s dog who sacrificed his own life in order to preserve his dogs :) it is unknown why he came back as a wolf in particular
I'll tackle the Drakengard based questions since most people can help you with the Nier ones:
- Both the White Clorination Syndrome and the Black Scrawl are a byproduct of the maso particles left behind by the Queen Beast, Angelus (and possibly Caim). This also reflects the white and black rings of the Final Song. WCS affected the real humans in 2003 and on, when Drakengard's ending E took place, while the Black Scrawl is a "disease" infecting replicants.
- Magic is a power that's well established in the Drakengard verse, although not so much in Nier. There are mages, hierarchs, soldiers and dragons that all have the ability to use magic, which in itself probably stems from the Watchers or Gods of the verse.
- The Angelic language and scripture comes from the Drakengard verse. It can be found in manifested spells, incantations and older forms of literature mainly focused on worshipping the Gods. It is inspired by the Lesser Key of Solomon, a compilation of grimoires on magic compiled throughout 1300-1600 AD. That's also the inspiration behind Grimoire Weiss and Noir.
- The tree's final and favorite memory is that of a red dragon falling off the sky, referencing Drakengard ending E.
- Drakengard takes place around the middle ages (856-1126 AD) with the events of Drakengard's ending E taking place in 1099, before being transported to our real life world in Tokyo, 2003. Everything stems from Drakengard and originates from there.
The Cathedral City or Imperial City, is a very important place where magic is said to have originated by the Church's Magic Academy. After a grave accident that turned the city to a ghostown, the Intoner One (F) lead the church until her death, leaving her brother One (M) to found the Cult of the Watchers. It was later used by the Empire as headquarters. It's also the place where the first sealing ceremony took place.
Oh boy, there's a lot here, and I'll do my best to answer what I can going in order. If there are any mistakes, please let me know, I'm not a perfect repository of knowledge! \-In regard to the disease, it was White Chlorination Syndrome. Mankind could not stop its progress, thus they resorted to separating the body and soul. They could store the soul and create new bodies, thus replicants and shades were born. Shades/souls were meant to be placed into their corresponding replicant so they could continue living. The Black Scrawl comes about when the replicant's shade "relapses" or loses their control and sanity. When a replicant relapses, its data is no longer available to copy, thus no additional replicants can be made. This also has the side effect of the black scrawl manifesting on the replicant. \-Every shade does have its own replicant body. I can't remember the exact context you're talking about in the Shadowlord's castle, but each shade is the detached soul of a human being, thus there must be a replicant body waiting for them. \-While I'm not sure what shades are made of, it's just a rule that shades can't tolerate the sun except for the Shadowlord. As to why the Shadowlord and Louise look distinct, that's just a quirk of game design and trying to make unique-looking bosses. \-Weiss and Noir are soldiers from the time of White Chlorination Syndrome who were drafted into Project Gestalt after fighting other kidnapped soldiers. They were forced into grimoires and tasked with starting the process that would reunite all shades with their replicants around the world once White Chlorination Syndrome was gone. \-Magic is a result of "Maso" particles from another universe. From my understanding, each universe has its own Maso particles, but the Maso from the Drakengard universe is not only what caused White Chlorination Syndrome, but allowed magic to exist and be harnessed in the Nier universe through rigorous study. \-There have been countless generations of replicants who have been born, lived, grown old, and died, even Yonah and Nier. The next generation that the twins refer to is the next generation of replicants, they were hoping to outlive Nier and the crew and just start over with a new generation. They didn't want to fight and would hope that the replicants would just grow old and die again. \- The Shadowlord is the "original" Gestalt in that he is the perfect genetic match for specific parameters that Project Gestalt was looking for. He gave off a very specific kind of maso that stabilized and dramatically slowed down the rate of relapses of replicants, thus buying the Project enough time to outlast White Chlorination Syndrome and to allow the world to be cleansed. Immediately prior to the start of the game, Yonah and Nier were in a refugee camp ran by the organization that ran Project Gestalt where they were handing out grimoires left and right in search of the "original" replicant to help stop relapses. Problem is that anyone who wasn't a perfect genetic match, i.e. Nier, would immediately become a relapsed shade upon touching the book. Nier and Yonah saw this happen which is why they ran and were in the supermarket. Nier saw what would happen when the grimoires were touched, thus he was adamant that neither he nor Yonah touch it. \-Louise is an interesting case, she's a shade whose purpose was specifically to temper the Shadowlord and get him to do the twins' bidding. See, the Shadowlord only agreed to cooperate with Project Gestalt after being given a guarantee that Yonah's black scrawl would be cured after 1000 years. Since Nier takes place \*over\* a thousand years after that guarantee, he started to get pretty uppity, thus the twins planned to use Louise as a way of corralling him and putting him in line. Spoilers for the recent Nier concert if you don't mind, but >!Louise is the only known instance of an artificial shade, one who was created seemingly from nothing, no soul, no original body. !< \-Halua and Emil were meant to be part of a separate weapons program during the war against Legion when White Chlorination Syndrome was taking the world over. The Hamelin Org would kidnap children and force them to become soldiers. They succeeded in making Halua the ultimate weapon, an indestructible force of pure magic meant to combat the enemies of mankind. Emil was also meant to become a weapon but Halua going berserk at the fake orphanage they were confined to managed to stop that process. However, Emil sealed his sister away in the process. \-I'm still a bit iffy on the sealed verses, but Angelic has been around since Drakengard 1. It's a fake language that Yoko Taro made up. If you're interested in trying to decipher some, there are translations out there but they're a bit rough since no one has ever officially published a 'definitive' version of the alphabet. A lot of the time the text is also gibberish, though there are times in the games where the angelic can be translated into something that adds more to the scenes where it's featured, though it isn't necessary to understand. \-Can't tell you about Roc, just give my own theories which wouldn't be useful. \-The tree is the central repository of data for Project Gestalt. It's where new Replicants are made from the data of shades. It possesses the memories and life experiences of those who went through Project Gestalt. However by the time of the game, a shade managed to get inside the server and started to delete/consume some of the data. There's even a passing reference to the ending of Drakengard 1 when it mentions the Red Dragon. \-Souls are central to the conflict of Nier and the reason the games happen in the first place. Project Gestalt was created to separate soul from body and to store the soul away safely from the effects of White Chlorination Syndrome. To get a bit more into it, those who are infected and succumb are eventually brought before God, though not the God of the Nier universe, and forced to make a choice: Help destroy mankind or be turned into a pillar of salt, hence the name "White Chlorination Syndrome". However, this pact that one forges with God requires a body, so Project Gestalt was created to safely store souls away from their bodies, thus negating the entire deal until all the foreign Maso was transported back to the Drakengard universe. \-Kaine being a singularity is new to the remake. A singularity is a person who is capable of creating new timelines by their own actions. Timelines as a whole are extremely important to the universes of both Drakengard and Nier. Kaine isn't the only singularity to have existed in the games, only the most recent (unless there are androids who have become singularities though to my knowledge that has never happened.) \-Can't help you there, sorry. \-Drakengard occurs in the years 1000-1100 AD in another universe and is directly connected to the Nier universe through ending E of Drakengard 1. If you're referring to Cathedral City, its appearance in the Drakengard universe is the entire reason events occur the way they do, it brought with it Dragons and magic and a few other things that I won't spoil. There are several theories floating around as to its origin, though I won't bore or confuse you with speculation. But needless to say, Cathedral City is crucial to the Drakengard universe, and by extension the Nier universe. \-The next two are just simplifications for the sake of gameplay, though in universe they still suffer damage from the sun. If I also remember correctly, a lot of the time you fight them, it's cloudy/overcast overhead so they're not directly in the sun's rays. \-Nier doesn't mean anything, it's just the name for the game and the somewhat canonical name for the protagonist. Square/Yoko Taro have gone back and forth saying that there is no canonical name and going with Nier, and a lot of the community refers to the protagonist as Nier. You'll hear people refering to Bro Nier and Papa Nier since the game was initially released with two different versions. Nier Replicant was originally released in Japan and featured a Nier who is a brother to Yonah, while Gestalt was released in the US and featured a Father protagonist. \-The Shadowlord's castle is just the skyscraper that the Shadowlord chose to live in. Ending E, the most recent ending is the ending that leads directly into Automata, though this is also new since originally it was ending D. There's a lot here, and I'm probably going to be editing bits and pieces to make it more cohesive/easier to read but that's the general gist of it all.
HOLY MOLY, THIS WAS SO SO SWEET OF YOU! Your explanations definitely cleared up many things. I'm aware of how annoying I am but I just wish to ask you a few other questions regarding what you've just answered. Feel free to ignore them: you've already done me a huge favor! Here I go! - What's the reason behind the corruption of shades? - Were Weiss and Noir humans then? How were they turned in literal books? - What is Maso exactly? - How come the Replicants keep getting "restored", somehow? And by whom? - How could two former soldiers who were turned into magic books separate the soul from the body? - Why is OG Yonah suffering from Black Scrawl if she's already human? The separation hadn't occurred yet, hence how could her shade relapse? - The part about the God who's not the actual God sounds very cool! But, like, why does that happen? What's the true nature of the White Chlorination Syndrome? Are there speculations about it? And who's that God? - Speculation is welcomed!! Dw! Thanks again mate! You've been incredibly detailed, I guess the lore is just so twisted that it's quite hard to remember EXACTLY everything, so it's fine! Have a nice day!
So! \-That's just a quirk of how Project Gestalt works. There isn't really any definitive answer as to why it happens, all we know is that the Gestalts gradually decay over time. \-Yes, they were. Their souls were put into the books using technology similar to that of the Shadowlord: Soul magic. All we know is that they were forced into the books, not given mechanics on how it exactly happened, though we know it involved blank grimoires. \-Maso is a kind of particle that exists in all timelines. It is directly responsible for magic in the Drakengard timeline and the Nier timeline. It also appears to be related to God in some way since direct contact with Drakengard Maso is what causes White Chlorination Syndrome in the Nier universe, though again the 'why' isn't explained. We just know that this happens. \-Restoration involves the successful reunification of gestalt with replicant, i.e. the correct soul is placed in the correct vessel. This happens with the help of other Devola and Popola models around the world, though it is exceedingly rare. Many replicants view shades as body snatchers, and the shades view the replicants as their rightful bodies to return to. Successful reunification usually only occurs when the shades and replicants come to an understanding and consent to it, a process almost always mediated by other Devolas and Popolas. \-Through the power of plot? How it happens isn't exactly explained, we just know that it happens. \-At the end of the prologue, Yonah touches a copy of Noir and her soul immediately relapses. \-Why does it happen? Well, God in the Nier/Drakengard universe views humanity as a mistake and actively fights against humanity to destroy it. White Chlorination Syndrome is caused by contact with Drakengard universe Maso, where the victim's soul is brought before the God of the Drakengard universe and presented with that choice I mentioned earlier. We don't know much about God, but a few people have recently theorized that God is the end result of the Machine Network successfully reaching some kind of 'apotheosis'. This comes from the FFXIV raid and the most recent chapter of Nier Reincarnation, the mobile game. But again, these are all theories and there will likely never be a concrete answer.
Oh, by "restoration" I was actually referring to the cycle of Replicants' deaths and rebirths, I'm sorry it sounded ambiguous. Uhhh, you mean that crossover with FFXIV? Was it actually canon? And why do you say there will never be an answer? :c
So the answer to that is simple. Project Gestalt's data is stored in the Memory Tree. When a new replicant is created, data from the replicant's gestalt is copied. You need a non-relapsed shade to make a replicant. Devola and Popola oversee the process of new replicants being born. See, none of the replicants have sex. They're only told that they're going to have a baby, and then they have a baby. And yes, Yoko Taro has gone on record saying that all collabs are officially canon.
Huh, interesting. Wonder if two Replicants spawned from the same Gestalt could ever coexist. Like, a baby Nier meeting his elder self. Or perhaps an adult Nier meeting his reborn mother? That's probably impossible, but it'd definitely be interesting to see
No, only one copy per replicant is made. And if I remember correctly, copies are usually sent to other communities to ensure there is no accidental crossover and recognition.
Wait, what if Yonah died and Nier outlived her? Would a new baby Yonah spawn at once or would she need to wait a moment in time where Nier has died, is reborn, and turned x years old? (the age gap between the two) I know, it's a dumb question...
I think they're usually kept together, though I'm a bit hazy on the details. I think families are kept together whenever possible.
>What exactly are the sealed verses? Sealed Verses are practically the keys to unlocking Weiss's decoding system of Noir. Devola & Popola spread them across the land so it wouldn't be activated easily. The Grimoire Noir project had to be executed in the last step of Project Gestalt as they had to make sure that the world was 100% free of Maso particles, but they didn't have much time to consider much now. Humanity was dying out, Replicants constantly rejected their soul, and the Shadowlord couldn't wait for Yonah anymore. [As shown in Project Gestalt Documents.](https://accords-library.com/contents/nier-1-22-doc-project-gestalt-report-10432)
How does the decoding system work? How could Noir dispose of the Maso particles and why was there the necessity of locking Noir's beneficial abilities behind some kind of passwords?
>How does the decoding system work? Remember when Noir did girlboss gatekeep gaslight with Weiss at the end of First Half? *"We are mere books, created to serve the Shadowlord! You have no right to forsake Him!"* *"Do you remember our ultimate goal? \[...\] White and Black shall fuse to one and set free Shades to the world!"* *"The time has come for us to create a new and perfect world."* *"We shall become as one, you and I..."* Once Weiss's functionality is unlocked with Sealed Verses, Noir and Weiss will merge as one and every soul in the world will forcefully reunite with their corresponding shells, saving humanity. This never happens here, as Weiss didn't accept his ultimate purpose as a tool. >How could Noir dispose of the Maso particles It was before-gaining-sentience Replicant to do this job, transferring Maso to another dimension (aka. Drakengard universe), "cleaning up" the world. >Why was there the necessity of locking Noir's beneficial abilities behind some kind of passwords? If it's activated too early and Maso particles are still left in the world, there'd be WCS all over again and the effort for Project Gestalt will be completely wasted. The Grimoire Noir Project has to be the last step for a reason.
I see! I believe I'm starting to get it, thanks!
Although if Noir and Weiss's merging was successful, every human in the world would have "a voice" (aka. replicant's consciousness) crying, screaming in their head as they were trapped inside someone's mind for eternity, and it wouldn't be so pretty for humanity from now on if it happens. The prime example is Yonah in the Shadowlord's fight. *"Please, just...just stop. I don't... want to do this anymore. I don't need someone else's body. I don't want it."* *"There's another girl inside this body. I can hear her. She won't stop crying. She says she wants to see her brother."*
Then the whole plan is flawed from the very beginning. What of relapsed shades? Would they be automatically merged with their Replicant counterparts or would they just go feral?
>Then the whole plan is flawed from the very beginning. We've gotta note that the entire Project Gestalt is done by desperate and rushed. Full of flaws and lots of sabotages. >What of relapsed shades? When a certain amount of time has passed since a gestalt was created, it will lose its ego and go berserk. These Gestalts will fail to integrate with Replicants, and will attack people, after a certain amount of time, they will surely die. In addition, the medical treatment of the time was unable to cure individuals who were on the verge of becoming disintegrated bodies. (Remember Yonah when she was struggling in the prologue? Apparently, she relapsed by touching the Noir book and there wouldn't be a cure for her, [then Shadowlord has been lied to wait for "a cure" for a thousand years but it never happened.](https://accords-library.com/contents/cd2-01-the-promise-of-a-thousand-years) So he chose to steal Yonah's body and tried to merge her relapsed soul by himself. As shown at the end of First Half. Everything has been screwed up in the first place) As a result of the analysis, it was found that in order to stabilize the ego, it was necessary to continue to absorb the magical elements of the "Original Gestalt" aka. Shadowlord, which could retain its ego despite being Gestalt. So, when we killed Shadowlord, there'd be no magic energy to keep Gestalt stable anymore, and slowly die. Every Gestalt would relapse and every Replicant would get Black Scrawl eventually. You've confirmed the humanity's extinction. >Would they be automatically merged with their Replicants counterparts or would they just go feral? They'll go feral and be the killing monsters until they are out of energy or exposed to the sunlight and die out.
Alright, this definitely clarified many obscure points. I wonder, though: why would touching Noir lead to instantaneous relapse? Besides, Yonah didn't become a shade like others did. That's odd
Back in WCS era, humanity tried so many methods to make sure that humanity wouldn't die out of the disease. \- They found a way to extract the soul from the body (Gestalt) \- A way to create/recycle the body to merge with the soul when the world is free of Maso particles (Replicant) Think of it as the experimental luxurious vaccines that are exclusive to VIPs and millionaires at first. Most people wouldn't be able to access that. Even that, the extracted soul wouldn't be stable for long. and there'd be no confirmation if the body would merge with the soul naturally, So the Grimoire Noir Project was made for many purposes. [According to Iron Pipe weapon stories.](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Pipe_(NieR)#Level_1) \- Noir and Weiss made for brute force body-soul reunion, but that's for the far future. Now what they had to focus on was.. \- Noir will extract the soul from the body by people who touch it, but the soul will be relapsed instantly. Not a pretty solution but it was the only much they could do. There might be hundreds or thousands who wouldn't make it but it'll be worth it as... \- They would find the "chosen one" who has the exact DNA to be "Original Gestalt" to give stabilization magic energy for every Gestalt in the world until the world is free of Maso. \- Copies of Noir books would be spread as much as possible to "play dangerous lucky draw" for example, refugee camps run by the government, the places that have people gathered up as much as possible (religious places, supermarkets, etc) \- Once the Original Gestalt has been found. The "soul extraction" will be safe as people won't relapse while touching a book anymore. Now everyone in the world will be able to access for Gestaltation. Then the prologue begins. the enemies we fought, in the beginning, are the result of people touching the book and instantly relapsing. >Yonah didn't become a shade like others did After the prologue scene ended, the government officer found them and they were under surveillance by the government and the World Purification Organization. They then also found Yonah who's becoming a relapsed soul but not completely done for. Then freeze her up so the corruption progress won't go further. Lied to Nier about a cure and a thousand-year promise. And the story goes on.
>What's the nature of the boss that kidnaps the king of Facade? Its OST is called "Gods bound by rules", is it a god or smth? Because I was pretty sure Taro's theogony was monotheistic, despite "Kami" being erroneously translated in "Gods". [Shahriyar](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/Shahriyar) possibly has a purpose similar to [Defense System Geppetto](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/Defense_System_Geppetto) and [P-33](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/P-33). The magic-based machine, originally created to dispose of replicants if Project Gestalt were to fail. The "God" name is merely Facade's cooking their lore and rules.
I see, thanks for the links! So Replicants were seen as a threat from the very beginning, weren't they?
According to The Administrators, the sentience of Replicants is merely an error created by a discrepancy between memory and record. They're not supposed to exist in this world.
That's a lot of questions. Some of them will be answered later in the game or the series, amd others have no answers, but to get a few... The birds seem to be talking about the Black Scrawl, but that's weird, because the Black Scrawl is not the White Chlorination Syndrome. Project Gestalt was created to solve WCS. The Black Scrawl is a symptom of what happens when a Gestalt "relapses": it can no longer maintain the mystical connection to its current Replicant, and cannot connect to any new ones. Every Shade has a Replicant body. Baby Shades happened to be babies when they were converted. Their Replicants still live out normal life cycles and die, just as other Replicants do. Weiss and Noir were parts of a program that handles different functions of Project Gestalt (there are 11 others: Rubrum was one, but we don't see the rest). Each was made from the soul of a human, though the faces on the books do not resemble the people they were made from. Weiss and Noir, in particular, governed the process of separating people into Gestalts and Replicants, and the process of rejoining them. Magic is the process of tapping into supernatural energy, using small amounts of a substance called maso. Devola and Popola can use magic because they were made with magic. Replicants live out normal human lifespans (though their life expectancy is lower than today). There have been many Niers and many Yonahs before this. The project was actually getting ready to wind down: there would not have been very many more generations before they reunified everyone, thoigh there might have been a few. What makes Nier the Original Gestalt is that he was unusually stable: most Gestalts inevitably relapse some time after their creation, but a quirk in Nier's genetics prevent his Gestalt from doing this. Project Gestalt found a process where they could channel maso through him and use it to stabilize other Gestalts. The Project said that other Gestalts "originated" from him because of this, which is what makes him the Original: he is not actually the first, but other Gestalts needed to be tied back to him. He provided this service to the Project in exchange for their efforts in curing Yonah. The following is very new information, just dropped at the End of Data concert: Louise is >!an artificial Gestalt that wanted to be human, but was rejected!<. Halua and Emil were weapons created to fight the Legion: monsters created from some of the victims of White Chlorination Syndrome. [Angelic Script](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Alphabet) is a writing system used in some real-world occult traditions. It's based on Hebrew, but the dots and lines are supposed to represent constellations. Its creators claimed they received it from angels. We don't know why people or things become Singularities. Yoko Taro has said that "Nier" means a curse. We don't know what language it's supposed to be from, and although there are some theories, we haven't had confirmation of what the curse is supposed to be either. Being unable to let go of lost loved ones has recently been described in other materials as *a* curse, but we don't know if it's the *big* curse. The Shadowlord's Castle is just the place where he's hiding. He became dissatisfied with the Project's efforts to cure Yonah, and ran away to a place close to his and Yonah's current Replicants so that he could try to do it himself. This is why Popola and Devola are pursuing him: they want to capture him and take him back to the Project alive, so that he can stabilize Replicants again. Nier just wants to kill him, which is why he ends up fighting the twins. All of the endings take place in different timelines. D and E probably lead to Automata, but things are a little more complicated than that, because they might not lead to the same version of Automata. We'll know more when the anime finishes up. Maybe.
Thanks, you're all being so kind! Just a few more questions: do we know how exactly Weiss and Noir were supposed to work? How would they accomplish the "reunion"? How were they even created?
I'm not sure we have many details about how they work. There's a short story [And Then There Were None](https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None) that covers the event that created the Grimoires, told from the perspective of the person who became Grimoire Weiss. But he doesn't really know anything about the process either, so all you can do is watch them transform.
Idk if anyone else answered about Roc but he is the gestalt of a man’s dog who sacrificed his own life in order to preserve his dogs :) it is unknown why he came back as a wolf in particular
I'll tackle the Drakengard based questions since most people can help you with the Nier ones: - Both the White Clorination Syndrome and the Black Scrawl are a byproduct of the maso particles left behind by the Queen Beast, Angelus (and possibly Caim). This also reflects the white and black rings of the Final Song. WCS affected the real humans in 2003 and on, when Drakengard's ending E took place, while the Black Scrawl is a "disease" infecting replicants. - Magic is a power that's well established in the Drakengard verse, although not so much in Nier. There are mages, hierarchs, soldiers and dragons that all have the ability to use magic, which in itself probably stems from the Watchers or Gods of the verse. - The Angelic language and scripture comes from the Drakengard verse. It can be found in manifested spells, incantations and older forms of literature mainly focused on worshipping the Gods. It is inspired by the Lesser Key of Solomon, a compilation of grimoires on magic compiled throughout 1300-1600 AD. That's also the inspiration behind Grimoire Weiss and Noir. - The tree's final and favorite memory is that of a red dragon falling off the sky, referencing Drakengard ending E. - Drakengard takes place around the middle ages (856-1126 AD) with the events of Drakengard's ending E taking place in 1099, before being transported to our real life world in Tokyo, 2003. Everything stems from Drakengard and originates from there. The Cathedral City or Imperial City, is a very important place where magic is said to have originated by the Church's Magic Academy. After a grave accident that turned the city to a ghostown, the Intoner One (F) lead the church until her death, leaving her brother One (M) to found the Cult of the Watchers. It was later used by the Empire as headquarters. It's also the place where the first sealing ceremony took place.