[This work is inspired by the images, gameplay, and story of Atlus's Etrian Odyssey, as well as its sequels.]
[Since July 9th, 2012, the two previous chapters have been edited to include new story details which, I believe, help to give the story a greater feeling of cohesiveness. I have also made changes to account for the fact that it is stated in Etrian Odyssey that Etria sent out messengers to all the different corners of the continent regarding the Labyrinth. This update is shorter than others, as a way of proving my intention to continue writing.]
Evening – you are in the Three-Gates Library, a castle which was repurposed as a library during the nation's last revolution. The things that Ardell Noir has been talking about sound, to you, like a crackpot conspiracy theorist's dream come true. But his sources are real - you are able to find some of them hidden within the Three-Gates' Special Archives. They have grown even mistier and more difficult to interpret between the year of Noir's discovery and the year of yours, it seems.
"In the year of catastrophe, many centuries ago, a group of alchemists gathered in Etria. They intended to stave off disaster by transmuting certain precious materials that can be found within Etria's forests. They failed."
How very disappointing. "They failed." No details, no explanation.
As convincing as he might be, taking Noir's word for truth without doing any research of your own would be incredibly naïve. There are some coincidences that support Noir's theory – such as that the Reclamation ended in the same year that the Yggdrasil Labyrinth was said to be "conquered" – but wouldn't believing those coincidences make you just as much of a crackpot as Noir might be?
There are other similarities between yourself and Noir which worry you, too. Flipping through the pages of a book of Etrian folklore, you consider the parallels between an ornithologist with no birds to study and a myth-weaver. Aren't you chasing myths, just like he is? Isn't Maurice filling a position for you, which is similar to the position you fill for Noir?
Your hand drifts from the book of folklore to Noir's diary, slowly, as if draping an arm around your lover's shoulder. What a metaphor, you think to yourself. Any more of this and you may have to make a trip to Etria…
Stallion 11, Ethereal Academy, Breakthrough!
I have been busy these past twenty-four days compiling research materials to submit a proposal to the Council of Seven. I believe that if I can support my theory on the Reclamation well enough, they may provide me with funds, materials, and personnel for an expedition to Etria. The possibility excites me very much. I enjoy traveling, and a trip to Etria would be to me what a live dig is for an archeologist. To connect the mythic past with the present reality, to connect the human id with its ego…imagine! One singular, powerful moment of revelation, like the legend of the World-Nut.
[The next several inches of space contain, instead of more writing, four circular splots of black ink. Their edges are rounded, twisted, and reaching, so that each resembles a deadly infection which was killed and petrified before it could spread through the rest of the journal. At each splot's center, the paper in the journal is either slightly ripped or has been imprinted upon. It would seem that Noir purposefully pressed his pen to his journal to make these splots after writing his first paragraph. From left to write, the first three splots grow larger and larger, but the right-most splot is the smallest.]
I sound like my colleagues, don't I? I've allowed myself to become more passionate about my research than about its implications. In the end, it doesn't matter if another report is written about the Reclamation based on my findings. It doesn't matter if my work inspires a new direction in the field, or if I am published and become well-known or respected. Or it shouldn't.
What should matter, and what should be the only thing that matters, is that my findings might have the power to save lives. And yet, that is no longer the only thing that motivates me.
I have never told anyone this, but my first memories are of fire – of a white hot, all consuming, uncontrollable passion. In my day-dreams, in my unconscious associations, in my language, there is always fire. There is always something burning, consuming, revealing darkness. I do not know what this means, but I have taken it as a powerful symbol, from which I draw inspiration.
And yet, I chose long ago to study electricity as a form of combat alchemy! Do I deny my inner fire?
There is truth in everything, even in the blackest of lies. Everything reveals something else – that is the principle upon which I have chosen to stake my life. My life and the mystery of the Reclamation and the Yggdrasil Labyrinth may soon become very closely and irreversibly entwined. I suppose I must accept that I am a selfish creature.
But, at the same time, I must remember that I have a mission. I cannot allow myself to become lost in my own ambitions. And yet I fear that if I do not satisfy this hunger of mine, if I do not feed this fire within me, then I will be overwhelmed by it.
I must maintain a careful balance. I must not fail. Now, these reflections have left me drained and depressed. I will write more tomorrow. For now, I believe I will step into town and treat myself to a pick-me-up cup of tea. Perhaps also a slice of cake.
Stallion 12, Ethereal Academy, This time, actually, "Breakthrough!"
Yesterday I became stalled by my own melancholy and was unable to record my most recent and exciting findings in my personal journal. I will do so today.
[There is a note in the margins: "Though the tea was foul, the cake was fantastic! Delicious! I bought a whole one after my first slice, and brought it home so that I can munch on it all week!"]
I have been thinking about the vocabulary that Reclamation scholars use to talk about the Reclaimed lands. They call the wilderness "malignant" if it spreads, and "benign" if it does not. I use the same vocabulary myself, but I've never really thought about why. It just seemed like the thing to do. But really, the same terms refer to diseases – specifically, I have been thinking about tumors.
There is a kind of tumor called a "teratoma", which begins as a benign growth but has the potential to become malignant. They are sometimes present in children, from birth, and other times they are discovered later in life. What is most disturbing about the teratoma is that it sometimes contains fully or partially formed pieces of the human body – hair, bone, teeth, sometimes eyes, hands, or feet. Sometimes, horrifyingly, undeveloped fetuses have been discovered inside of these teratoma tumors. They most often grow within the skull, or the mouth, or the neck – produced, a poet could postulate, from the center of human imagination and emotion.
A philosopher might wonder which body – the fetus or the living human who spawned it from its teratoma – is the true inheritor of a human consciousness. What could such a fetus be, I wonder? Why would it exist? Why would nature create such a thing, why would it choose to appear and be violent? Why would a teratoma fetus act as if it were reclaiming the body it grows within?
When I consider how human-kind currently views the Reclamation based on the vocabulary used to discuss it, I come to the conclusion that it is considered a cancer upon the earth. Legends and myths which speak of similar sounding events call it a reckoning against the evils of humanity. The name, "Reclamation", suggests that the earth is taking back something which was appropriated from it.
A teratoma is a sort of disease – a cancer which is talked about in the same way that the Reclamation is. Consider the earth a body, and the Reclamation a teratoma. The language of discourse supports such a comparison, I believe. Now, if the Reclamation is a teratoma, it must have a source. Perhaps it was once benign, and has now become malignant and is spreading throughout the earth's "body". There must be a benign progenitor of the Reclamation. Etria's Yggdrasil Labyrinth resembles a benign section of Reclaimed earth. It is the only one we know about.
The next question I had was: what could cause the Labyrinth to become malignant? Which was when I thought about the "Project", the myth of the Tree of Life, and the un-cited references to a biological-alchemical experiment performed in Etria centuries ago.
I believe that something spawned the Labyrinth, and that this something has become corrupted by some irresponsible alchemists. Some of them must still be living and monitoring the damage. Possibly, they are trying to reverse it. They could also be trying to harness its power as some sort of weapon. I cannot know for certain, and this is all speculation.
I strongly believe that Etria's Labyrinth is at least worth an investigation. The trouble is that my sources are all based in fiction. It is my interpretation of them, based on current, factual events, and my understanding of human psychology and the use of symbols, that has lead me to my conclusion. I admit that most of it could be a lie. But still! The fact is that this Yggdrasil Labyrinth shares a name with the Tree of Life, and that it is the only benign site of Reclaimed earth! It is worth investigation for that reason alone.
If the Labyrinth is a teratoma, though…would it have been present from the birth of our world? What kind of being exists at the center of the Labyrinth, and is it fighting with humanity to become the inheritor of our earth?
I must know. There are other paths to Etria than the one sanctioned by the Council of Seven. I am, at this point, willing to take them. I will do something to stop the Reclamation, whatever it takes. I will chase any lead – I have never felt a stronger sense of purpose, and at the same time I have never felt a stronger sense that I may be a complete fool.