Ariels
Ah, but I'm never satisfied with 100%. I don't feel as though something's done until it's 200% complete.
― Ariels[src]
Ariels is a major character in the Guilty Gear series. Presenting herself as calm and virtuous, Ariels is the first and only woman to be Sanctus Maximus Populi, the leader of the Sanctus Populi, having succeeded Hapinus XXVII.
Her original identity was the Universal Will, also translated as the Merciless Apocalypse, a mysterious entity originating from the Backyard. She is directly responsible for the Dawn of Revival and the creation and actions of the Valentines (who refer to her as their "Mother")[7][8] and indirectly responsible for the Crusades, the actions of the Conclave and the Post-War Administration Bureau after the Crusades, as well as the actions of Asuka R. Kreutz in opposition to her, making her the ultimate evil of the Guilty Gear universe.
Design
Ariels has a fair complexion, short platinum blond hair, and red eyes. She wears a white bodysuit with a shoulder-length golden cape, and massive and intricate hat with a eagle-like emblem and long locks of hair coming out of it.
Personality
Publicly, Ariels is known as calm and virtuous,[6] and always presents herself as a benevolent and understanding individual who cares for her people, and who desires nothing more than their security.[9] However, this is all a façade:[3] Her true persona is one of pure hatred for the human race, disregarding them all as nothing more than redundancies in the English script or dolls in the Japanese script[10]—such that she cannot bring herself to lie about it.[9]
Disgusted by humanity's need for their "excess", hope,[10] and something of a show-off, Ariels enjoys tormenting them, expressing her hatred with child-like glee, occasionally breaking into fits of laughter,[3][10][11] and has no compunctions about being described as a demon, an embodiment of all that is evil to humans.[12] Describing herself as resilient, she is determined to accomplish her one and only goal no matter what.[13]
Ariels is not completely heartless however, caring for her daughters in her own twisted way:[5] Though she sees Ramlethal as defective, she believes that her death would spare her from a life of solitude and sadness;[5] and though she disregards Elphelt's wishes, she enjoys spending time with her[13] and wants for her to become a complete human,[3] thus achieving "everlasting happiness".[4] However, it appears that her "insanity" and frequent mood-swinging is a result of trapping Happy Chaos within herself.[14]. As of Guilty Gear -STRIVE- she shows regret for her actions.
Story
Some time in the late 20th century, the man who would become known as The Original discovered and accessed the Backyard. During his studies, he created an information organism whose directive to ensure eternal happiness for humans without harming them. But the Original made a critical error in not defining humans, with his creation pondering over it before reaching the conclusion that humans possess a "soul" and thus must have free will and choice. But it then realizes that humanity is gradually discarding their free will due to the natural state of human advancement and bringing humans eternal happiness would only help the process along. This conundrum allowed the entity to conclude that real humans don't yet exist, circumventing it’s programming by seeing the current "human” race as "redundancies" that must be exterminated to make way for true humans of its own making. The entity would later be christened as the Universal Will.
In 1999, the Universal Will made its first move in manifesting in electronic devices worldwide to broadcast a message: "In a matter of days, humanity will crumble." Several days later, all electronic devices ceased functioning and multiple natural disasters bombarded civilization in an event known as the Dawn of Revival, leading to worldwide societal collapse until The Original and his disciples introduced magic to the world. At some point after this, The Original disappeared, re-entering the Backyard in an attempt to stop the Universal Will once and for all. His fate is currently unknown.
The Universal Will launched a second attack in the year 2074, simultaneously attempting to manifest inside and seize control of a newly-activated Justice, as well as manifesting in the people of Japan, triggering a reaction that transformed them into antimatter Gears. Seeing the coming end of the world right before his eyes, Asuka R. Kreutz seized control of Justice himself and fired her Gamma Ray at Japan, reducing the island nation to a deep crater in the ocean.[15] Both the contact with the Universal Will and her actions psychologically scarred Justice and drove her berserk as she took control of all Gears and declaring war on humanity, marking the beginning of the Crusades.
At some point between 2175 and 2187[16], the Universal Will approached Bedman in the Backyard and manipulates him into helping it create an "Absolute World" with the lie that he can use his powers to pull his sister Delilah from the Backyard and cure their condition while keeping him in the dark of the event’s purpose in destroying all life on Earth. The Universal Will also began its third attempt to manifest in the real world by possessing a human body to understand human emotions.
The Sanctus Maximus Populi Hapinus the 27th was driven insane and eventually met an early end in 2177, and Ariels took the position as the new The Sanctus Maximus Populi. Developing a hatred for redundancies with her newfound emotions, Ariels began to manipulate events more directly. During this time, she herded the surviving Japanese together into various colonies, ostensibly for their own protection. In 2185, the Universal Will created the first Valentine, an entity born in the Backyard with a single-minded drive to carry out orders implanted in her by "Mother". Valentine invaded the Kingdom of Illyria with an army known as the Vizuel with the goal of obtaining a "key" from the descendants of Justice (either Dizzy or Sin would do,) that would allow her to unlock the Cube, a device in the Backyard that would allow her to take control of the Backyard itself. Valentine was ultimately thwarted and killed by Sol and company, and the events were dubbed the Baptisma 13 incident.
In 2187, two more Valentines were created: Ramlethal and Elphelt. Realizing that the original Valentine's failure came from a lack of emotions, the Universal Will embedded the two with emotions from the outset. Ramlethal allied herself with the Conclave to carry out their secret plan of reviving Justice, while Elphelt was made into a sleeper agent, infiltrating Sol's group with no knowledge of her orders until she was activated. Once again, the Universal Will's plans were thwarted, with Justice's revival ending in failure and the members of the Conclave save Chronus being killed, along with Ramlethal turning against her Mother. However, the Universal Will was able to retrieve Justice's body for another attempt, and Elphelt was activated and retrieved to be used as Justice's new consciousness. To gather the energy necessary for the second revival attempt, she would once again weaponize the Japanese, transforming them into Anti-Matter gears and triggering them to explode en masse. After some test runs, the Universal Will finally revealed her true identity to the public before dropping a small army of antimatter Gears on Illyria City and leaving to attend to Justice's body. However, yet again her plans were thwarted; attempts to transform more Japanese were stopped by Kum Haehyun's Tuning, Illyria was saved by the Assassin's Guild, Zepp and various other characters coming to the rescue, Bedman was defeated by Venom when he was finally forced to awaken to counter his Terra Machina System, and Sol and company discovered Justice's location, retrieving Elphelt from Justice's body and replacing her with Jack-O, an unknown fourth Valentine created by Asuka R. Kreutz to revert Justice back into Aria. In the Epilogue of Guilty Gear -STRIVE- she is seen being freed from her containment & is praying on the streets of Illyria.
Abilities
Given her century-long existence, Ariels wields unfathomable magical power and knowledge. While she is human,[4][6] she is incredibly tough physically, such that she can withstand the blast of a Saint Oratorio and survive,[5] though with grave injuries.[6] Her weapons of choice are a greatsword and Black Tech golden revolver.
She can conjure up offensive spells that are powerful enough to level an entire building,[10] has access to Absolute Defense: Felion,[17] can mask her—and others'—ID signal entirely even if her blood is used to track her down,[18] appears to know what certain individuals are doing at any given time (though the means she uses to do is a mystery),[19][20] and can teleport to any place that she wishes with no seeming limit to her range,[11] a feat that only Izuna appears able to match.
Ariels is also a very powerful and skilled swordswoman, effortlessly fending off and countering attacks from Sol, Ky and Sin at the same time. She can block devastating blows from Sol with one hand, and is able to repel magical blasts from his Junkyard Dog at three-fold output (which can obliterate a mountain) with ease. She seems to be absurdly strong as well, able to create a shockwave from swinging her sword, creating a large fissure in the Celestial Altar after Sol's blast cracked it.[5]
Allusions
- Ariels might be named after the song "Aerials" by the heavy metal band System of a Down.
- After showing her true colors she begins wearing corpse paint, a style of makeup that is most associated with black metal musicians.
- Her design combining corpse paint and papal aesthetics might be an homage to the frontman of the Swedish metal band Ghost, Papa Emeritus. Other possible inspiration could be King Diamond not just due to his appearance, but due to him writing multiple albums of music about mental illness which could have inspired aspects of Ariels character.
Gallery
Concept artwork.
Concept artwork.
Concept artwork.
Concept artwork.
Concept art from Guilty Gear Strive Artworks Archive.
Close-up.
Strive screenshot.
LINE sticker.
References
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- ↑ Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Library, Universal Will
- ↑ Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Library, Valentines
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- ↑ Based on Delilah's age.
- ↑ Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- script § "Kaleidoscope A"
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