Clan

Six Clans

Overview

Most monsters appeared on the surface around the time of the Great Destruction, but there is no known explanation of how they came to reveal themselves. Although unsatisfying, the explanation that they “appeared with the Advent of Demons” has become almost universally accepted. The monsters of Nevareth are divided into the following six types: Dark, Metal, Mutant, Undead, Plant, Phantasmal, and so on. This is not a classification based on clear criteria, but merely a convenient distinction intended to aid understanding.

Truth

These are remnants of past civilizations. All Undead Clans originated from the 1st Civilization, and they cannot rest until they receive permission from the master of ASC for trespassing into the realms of life and Soul. All demon and Dark clans are those who fell from grace in the 2nd Civilization. In addition, Phantasmal, Plant, Metal, and Chimera-Mutant are weapons produced by the 1st Civilization.

The Plan of the Six Clans

As Faust sealed his power, the Core was split into seven Pieces. One Piece remained with Faust, while the other six were absorbed by the remaining six clans. However, the one sealed Piece was the most powerful, causing the other six to be affected by it.

The Core absorbed by the six clans gave them the power to escape from the Core's ruler, but the power they absorbed was incomplete because of the effect of Faust's Seal. There were also many sacrifices during the process of absorption and escape. Individuals with inferior abilities simply vanished, while those lacking the will to escape the constraints of subordination lost their sense of self and became nothing more than simple low-ranking monsters. Even the high-ranking beings who possessed great power lost a considerable amount of their personal abilities.

In the end, it was not easy to stand against the people of Nevareth using only the remaining power, despite their having inherited part of the Honorable Age's legacy. The six Clans therefore had to spend a long time recovering, and gradually regained their power. However, the people of Nevareth grew equally powerful, resulting in a certain stalemate.

Among them, the highest-ranking beings of each clan that had absorbed a Piece of the Core learned the records contained within the Piece as they recovered their power. They realized that they must not allow the Core to be taken away. At the same time, they learned of the existence of the 7th Piece. If they could obtain it, conflict with the people of Nevareth would no longer have any meaning. The six Clans waited for the seventh Piece to reveal itself to the world and for all Seals except the Seal of Subordination to be released.

The 7th Piece Revealed

At last, the presence of the seventh Piece was felt intensely. The Seal was released when Patren completed the first Awakening.

The leaders of all six clans sensed the seventh Piece and realized that a considerable amount of the power restricted from them had returned. As a result, the abilities of all monsters increased several times overnight. Through instinct and the knowledge conveyed by the Piece, they learned that the seventh Piece was the core of power, and instinctively understood that whoever obtained it would rule all monsters. It was now impossible to know when the balance between them would be broken. Each Clan began taking action to obtain the seventh Piece while keeping the others in check.

The Clans attempted to intervene in the human world and make use of their power. Each Clan had its own method.

• Undead: Control of the Thieves' Guild, increase in the Zombie population
• Dark: Heresist expansion
• Metal: Increased capabilities, development of new weapons, and deployment of reconnaissance weapons throughout Nevareth
• Mutant: Unification of individuals, absorption of other life forms, and growth into more highly evolved mutants
• Plant: Expansion of parasitic plants, which parasitize various animals, monsters, and humans. They control them.
• Phantasmal: Using infiltrated lycanthropes to seize control of the Treasure Hunter Guild

Dark Clan

Overview

The official name is Apostles of Dark Clan (Dark Clan).

The Dark Clan are currently the greatest threat to Nevareth. These members of the dark kin appear throughout Nevareth in greater numbers than any other faction. According to the legends of Great Destruction, the Dark Clan first appeared on the fourth day and, using all manner of schemes and magic, bewitched humans and turned them against one another. Accordingly, their intellectual level and magical abilities are exceptional.

Of course, not all members of the dark kin possess such abilities. It has been revealed that the lower-ranking kin have intelligence roughly equivalent to that of infants, while the magical beasts—monsters they control—possess only animal-level intelligence. However, the higher beings of the Dark Clan possess intelligence superior even to that of humanity, and their abilities—particularly those related to magic—are likewise far greater than those of humans.

The origins of the Dark Clan are extremely difficult to determine.

They are believed to have undergone an evolutionary process separate from that of modern humanity and other animals, as their blood is blue or black. However, unlike the Undead Clan, there is no trace whatsoever of them having been discovered before the Great Destruction.

It is also difficult to believe that they were created by an ancient civilization, as suggested by the theory concerning Metal. The hypothesis that ancient civilizations were capable of manipulating living organisms has cautiously been proposed, but even then, it would apply only to the Mutant Clan or Plant Clan. In this context, some people remain skeptical that ancient people could truly have created such beings. Some even assert the unverifiable hypothesis that the Dark Clan are beings from another dimension—an otherworld—citing the inexplicable nature of their emergence.

According to scholars conducting research under this hypothesis, the Dark Clan are beings from an otherworld called the “demon realm.” They also claim that the Dark Clan can open the gates to the demon realm and summon beings from the otherworld using secret magical techniques passed down since ancient times. The Sage Tower has offered no particular comment on this, and it has never succeeded in an experiment to summon an otherworldly being.

Truth

All demons and members of the Dark Clan originated in the 2nd Civilization. This resulted from the corruption of those who used their power for their own selfish desires; “he” came to wear the masks of cunning and beasts as the price they paid for betraying the principles of humanity.

Metal Clan

Overview

The official name is Apostle of Metal Clan (Metal Clan), said to have already been fully established in the Lost Age or even earlier, and to have cooperated with Saint Valentine for some purpose of their own, willingly carrying out his orders.

These are beings made entirely of metal. Although they cannot be called living creatures, repeated arduous capture-and-observation studies have revealed that they possess a “will” in some way.

The Metal Clan, said to have appeared on the third day of Great Destruction, has never been found to leave traces in any lore discovered to date, or anywhere among the ruins of ancient civilizations that existed before the Great Cataclysm and are occasionally found.

The Monster Research Institute has therefore cautiously proposed the hypothesis that the Metal Clan came from across the open sea of Nevareth, where an ancient civilization had developed. However, many questions still remain. If they had crossed over from there, their numbers should be limited, yet their continued appearances despite the ongoing destruction suggest that there is a problem with this hypothesis. Thus, some assume that the Great Destruction was a war among ancient humans, and view the nature of the Great Destruction as the result of ancient humans losing control of their weapons during the war.

For this reason, the current hypothesis regarding the origin of this Clan is that ruins of an ancient civilization still exist in an unexplored region of Nevareth, continuously producing them as weapons. However, the results of repeated capture studies have revealed that although they possess some degree of self-regeneration, they cannot produce new individuals.

In any case, as they are made of metal and machinery, they are difficult to destroy with ordinary weapons but are known to be vulnerable to attacks of the electric type. (There are exceptions, of course.)

The Truth

All members of the Metal Clan are weapons of war produced by the 1st Civilization.

Mutant Clan

Overview

The official name is Apostle of Mutant Clan (Mutant-Chimera Clan).

According to legend, they are monsters that appeared on the first day of The Great Cataclysm, beings formed when animals that existed before The Great Cataclysm became ferocious.

It is uncertain which species actually underwent mutation. However, based on their ecological patterns and external forms, a strong relationship with certain species can be observed, and it is merely presumed that those species underwent the mutations.

It is also difficult to find any consistency in the mutations. In quite a few cases, the original species is stronger than a powerful mutant despite being weaker in general. Of particular note is that, in a small number of cases, more than one type of mutant exists from the same original species. In addition to these pure Mutant Clan members, there is the Chimera Clan, which appears to consist of combinations of multiple monsters and animals. Their reproductive ecology has never been observed, but since no juveniles have ever been found apart from adults, they are believed not to undergo ordinary reproduction. Furthermore, whereas the Mutant Clan has habitats like ordinary animals, no habitat has ever been found for the monsters classified as Chimera Clan, and their appearance locations are also inconsistent.

In addition to these pure Mutant Clans, there is a Chimera Clan that appears to be a composite form of various monsters and animals. Although their reproductive ecology has never been observed, the fact that no juveniles have ever been found in addition to adults suggests that they do not undergo a normal reproductive process. Furthermore, whereas Mutant Clans have habitats like ordinary animals, monsters classified as Chimera Clans have never been found to have habitats, and their appearance locations are also inconsistent.

Nevertheless, the reason they are grouped and classified as Mutant-Chimera Clans is that, in terms of their outward form, they take the shape of animal mutations and composites.

In addition to the monsters listed above, various beasts also inhabit Nevareth. They generally never attack humans first, and their level of danger is very low compared with monsters. Even the most powerful animal can be considered to pose roughly the same level of danger as a low-grade monster. (There are also a very few cases with extremely formidable power.)

Although many animals died during The Great Cataclysm, the remaining monsters are also said to have been unable to retain their appearance from before The Great Cataclysm. In most cases, the animals' appearance and ecology are said to have undergone mutations due to rapid changes in most of their habitats. Among the creatures that underwent such mutations, those classified as dangerous creatures are the Mutant Clan. (This is the purely academic classification independent of the legends of The Great Cataclysm.)

The truth

All Mutant Clan members are weapons of war produced by the 1st Civilization.

Undead Clan

Overview

The official name is Apostle of Undead Clan (Undead Clan). Before the Great Destruction, during the Honorable Age, the existence of the Undead Clan was passed down through many myths and legends. Then, on the second day of the Great Destruction, the Undead Clan truly revealed itself before humanity.

They are not living beings, but beings that exist in a state of “death.” The most widely known of their ecological traits is “hostility toward all living creatures.”

The Undead Clan can be broadly divided into two types. One consists of those possessing physical bodies, while the other consists solely of spirit bodies (Spirit Body or Astral Body). The latter are generally known to be much stronger, but there are also several exceptional beings, such as Lich, that possess physical bodies while wielding tremendous power.

One reason for this is that undead composed solely of spirit bodies cannot be defeated with ordinary weapons, and their life force can also be drained simply through contact with a spirit body. The reason Lich are strong despite possessing physical bodies is that they have the highest intelligence of all undead, and they are also permitted to wield magical power.

The truth

All Undead Clan members originated in the 1st Civilization. As the price for trespassing into the realms of life and souls, they cannot rest until they receive permission from the master of ASC. In particular, the Undead Clan was effectively in a position to rule the other four clans, but after ASC's purification of civilization, it was demoted to the same position.

Plant Clan

Overview

The official name is Apostle of Plant Clan (Plant Clan) There are no records of them appearing in the legends of the Great Cataclysm; they are a type of monster discovered as people settled in Nevareth and expanded their influence. They primarily inhabit forests, jungles, and swamps throughout Nevareth, though some species also exist in environments where plants have difficulty growing, such as deserts and rocky mountain regions.

The Plant Clan basically takes the form of “moving plants.” More precisely, they can be defined as “carnivorous plant-type monsters that possess plant characteristics and metabolize by physically hunting animals.”

Some of them are species whose roots remain fixed while they move their branches to capture prey, while others use their roots like an animal’s legs to move around. Perhaps because they possess plant characteristics, they are generally weak against fire, and what they primarily consume is the bodily fluid of other beings. As research into ancient civilizations progresses and assessments of past civilizations become more favorable, this theory is gaining strength. Nevertheless, the Great Destruction – Demon Descent Theory remains the firmly established orthodoxy, while the War Theory is merely “a somewhat more plausible story.”

The Plant Clan Queen resides in Altar of Siena B1F.

The truth

All Plant Clan members are weapons of war produced by the 1st Civilization.

Phantasmal Clan

Overview

The official name is Apostle of Phantasmal Clan (Phantasmal Clan) Malformed and anomalous beings that do not belong to the five aforementioned categories are classified separately as Phantasmal Clan – the Phantasmal Kin. Although they do not harbor as overt a hostility toward humans as the Dark Clan, they are, along with the Dark Clan, among the beings that warrant the greatest caution due to the degree of danger they pose.

The criteria for classifying this clan are actually ambiguous. If one had to define it, it could be described as “a clan whose traces remain in the legends of ancient civilizations, but whose classification as another clan is unclear.”

The origin theories for beings belonging to these clans can broadly be divided into two. However, both the “Ancient Civilization Theory” and the “Otherworld Summoning Theory” are merely unverifiable hypotheses. In the former case, records of ancient civilizations themselves are exceedingly rare, and the few records that do exist merely define them as “beings from fantasy.” In the latter case as well, no evidence beyond the word “summoning” has been found in the records of ancient civilizations, making it a hypothesis that cannot actually be tested. One thing is certain: they already existed on this land before humanity landed on Nevareth.

The truth

All Phantasmal Clan members are weapons of war produced by the 1st Civilization.