Velvet Room



The Velvet Room is a room located between consciousness and subconsciousness which is commonly featured in the Persona series.

Profile
The Velvet Room often manifests itself differently in the game, but it is always covered in blue velvet and hosted by Igor. The purpose of the Velvet Room is always to manage Personas. The room is invisible to all except those with high spiritual sensitivity. In Persona 3, Igor states that only those who have formed a contract can be guests.

The method of summoning Personas in the Velvet Room significantly changes between Persona to Persona 2 to Persona 3 and Persona 4. In Persona, Igor calls the realm of unconsciousness, where he listens to a sad story from the other end which makes him cry, and the flood of emotion creates a riff that combines the two demons into the Persona. In Persona 2, the tarot cards given power the phone, which, combined with Belladonna and Nameless' music, summons the Persona directly. For the latter two, Igor performs an arcane ritual that fuses a certain number of Persona cards together to create a new one, which summons a Persona within the protagonist's soul.

Megami Ibunroku Persona
The Velvet Room is housed in the Sun Mall, Joy Street, the Black Market, and can be found in dungeons throughout the game. It appears as a room with blue velvet carpet and curtains covering the walls. Servants of Philemon, Igor, Nameless and Belladonna, are found in it.

Persona 2
In both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, the Velvet Room is run by Igor, who is a servant of Philemon. Other servants of Philemon who resided in the room, including Nameless and Belladonna return from Persona along with the addition of the Demon Painter. The Velvet Room appears as a room draped in blue velvet with a piano and a microphone which resides on a stage in the centre of the room, and it is accessible through every large mall in Sumaru City, of which there is one in virtually every major district.

Aside from Persona summoning and management, the Velvet Room is used for story purposes when people like Ulala Serizawa are taken there during the events of Eternal Punishment to recover from the infection of the Joker curse. In the EX Dungeon mode, the Velvet Room also functions as the base for switching party members. In the PSP remake of Eternal Punishment, each chapter of the additional scenario can be accessed from there by talking to Igor after the player has progressed the main plot at certain point.

Persona 3
The Velvet Room appears as an elevator that is endlessly ascending and can only be accessed by the protagonist. The room's appearance as an elevator can be considered as a reference to SEES' ascension in Tartarus throughout the game. The room is still run by Igor; however, he makes no reference to being a servant of Philemon. The Protagonist gains access to the Velvet Room after signing a contract with a child. Igor mentions that a long time has passed since he had a visitor. The other denizens are now gone, however, Igor has a new assistant named Elizabeth. Elizabeth would later mention that those who set foot in the Velvet Room are bound to be on a quest in search for themselves. When the protagonist creates 'The Universe' the Velvet Room will stop ascending and the door to the elevator will fly open.

Portable
The Velvet Room has the same role as in Persona 3, and can only be accessed by either protagonist. The only difference this time is that the player can choose Igor's assistant, Theodore or Elizabeth, if the player is using the Female Protagonist.

The Answer
The Velvet Room plays a larger role in Persona 3 FES. In the playable epilogue, titled The Answer, Aigis is given access to the Velvet Room and its services after being visited by a blue butterfly. It is in the Velvet Room where she learns about the Protagonist's unique ability. From time to time Elizabeth would try to cheer up Aigis from her grief regarding the Protagonist's death.

Persona Mobile Online
In this mobile version of Persona (stylized mostly after Persona 3), the Velvet Room is where players use their Arcana Points to access new and stronger Persona of their respective Arcana.

Persona 4
The Velvet Room appears as the interior of a limousine. Igor is still present and he has a new assistant named Margaret. It seems that the "limousine" is cruising along an unknown path through a dense fog, mirroring the situation over at the protagonist's own world.

Other than the protagonist, once, a Shadow managed to make an appearance in the Velvet Room. This prompted Igor to suggest that any creation with a powerful ego will be able to appear there; soon after this realization, the limousine moved again, this time on a definite path, with Igor remarking they were finally leaving the fog. The Velvet Room entrances can be found in Inaba's South Central Shopping District between Daidara Metalworks and Yomenaido Bookstore while the other can be found in the Midnight Channel's 'Entrance Hall".

Golden
The Velvet Room's purpose and appearance is much the same as the original Persona 4, except it adds a new character Marie, who manages skill cards and allows the player to give cards to her to store and later repurchase. In addition, this is the location where the Aeon Social Link is able to be formed with Marie, and the location that she can be found to engage in her social link.

Persona 4 Arena
The Velvet Room appears as the Character Select screen. Margaret stands beside Igor, who lays out his Tarot cards for the player, each Arcana corresponding to one of the 13 playable characters. In the game's Story Mode, the Room takes its usual form of a limousine interior or an elevator (in Aigis' Story Mode), while the character select version is a large dining hall where Igor sits on a sofa. In Aigis' story mode, the room appears as an elevator once more.

In the console versions, the Velvet Room is also the Network Mode menu. It is the same as the character select screen, with the exception of Margaret giving you your options of Ranked Match, Player Match, etc. as though you were in the request or Persona fusion menu. You may also change aspects of your profile, such as your custom title.

The Velvet Room is also an important location in Elizabeth, Aigis, and Yu Narukami's story modes. Elizabeth and Margaret still watch over their former guests, and will intervene whenever they are about to make dangerous mistakes.

Arena Ultimax
It appears once more in the Character Select screen. In the game's story mode, the Room is seen its two different form depending on the story mode. In the Persona 4 story mode, it takes the usual limousine interior while in the Persona 3 story mode, it is seen as an elevator.

In the prologue of the Persona 4 story mode, Igor and Margaret are seen talking to an unknown guest, later revealed to be Sho Minazuki, who refuses the contract and walks out the Velvet Room. However, Igor states that Sho is destined to form a contract with them to refine his power, and will eventually return when that time comes. Margaret notes that Elizabeth is likely to become a visitor of the Velvet Room in the true ending.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
In P4's story it is revealed that the Fortune Telling Booth Margaret opened during the Yasogami High School Festival is a simplified version of the Velvet Room. Margaret notices that time is unstable and that, somehow, the Investigation Team's presence affected the place. The once small room is transformed into a vast space with huge velvet blue stairs and rotating gears, along with two mysterious locked doors with four keyholes.

In P3's story Igor has currently left the room for that day, leaving it unstable. Theodore has been tasked to help his sister with aiding guests as a result. The raging storm outside of the room, along with its lack of a master is mentioned to have an unpredictable result, with SEES being brought into the room as room itself sends them all to the alternate Yasogami High.

The protagonists of both routes are mentioned to have told their friends about the Velvet Room and its purpose of giving them new personas. Persona users with support abilities usually support the party from this room, allowing the Attendants to overhear conversations.

The Velvet Room being in the form of a platform with stairs and rotating gears is mirroring and foreshadowing the Clock Tower within the alternate Yasogami High, showing how important the Clock Tower is to Rei since it symbolizes as the key figure of the school to her and how it became the final labyrinth for the Investigation Team and SEES, along with Zen, where the Clockwork God is waiting with Rei, imprisoned by him.

Persona 5
The Velvet Room appears as a prison, with the protagonist shown in a prisoner outfit and behind bars. It is mirroring the fact that the protagonist is or will become a criminal, specifically a thief. It can also represent how the protagonist feels imprisoned by the restrictions of society, which is the reason he becomes a criminal in the first place.

Denizens of the Velvet Room

 * Igor: Igor appears the most out of all Velvet Room residents, only not appearing in Persona Q. Igor claims to be a servant of Philemon, and he typically handles fusion.
 * Nameless: the piano player who appears in Revelations: Persona and Persona 2, he covers his eyes while playing the piano.
 * Belladonna: Belladonna is a soprano singer who accompanies Nameless's music. She covers her ears while singing.
 * Demon Painter: The demon painter only appears in Persona 2. He can convert free tarot cards into cards of another arcana. He is modeled after Kazuma Kaneko.
 * Elizabeth: Elizabeth is Igor's assistant in Persona 3. She handles the Persona compendium and offers the protagonist optional quests.
 * Theodore: Theodore is Igor's male assistant and the younger brother of Elizabeth, appearing in Persona 3 Portable. He handles the same duties as Elizabeth and will only appear when playing as the female protagonist.
 * Margaret: Margaret appears as Igor's assistant in Persona 4, and is Elizabeth's older sister, having taken over her role. She also handles the Persona compendium. Her requests are only Persona with specific abilities, but she also handles the Fusion forecast in return.
 * Marie: Marie is addressed as an apprentice in Persona 4 Golden. She is tasked with transactions related to Skill Cards.
 * Twin Assistants: Two young twins appear as Igor's two assistants in Persona 5.

Music
The Velvet Room has a distinct music theme titled "Poem of Everyone's Soul", also known in English as "Aria of the Soul". The same melody is rearranged not only for the Velvet Room in the series, but also for the ending theme of Megami Ibunroku Persona and second to final battle theme of Persona 3, etc.

The background music of Velvet Room in Persona 2: Innocent Sin includes other classical pieces along the re-arranged "Aria of the Soul". These are Debussy's "" and Satie's "". Persona 2: Eternal Punishment includes Beethoven's "" (known as "Pathétique") first half of first movement and J.S. Bach's "" (also used in Gouma-Den of Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers) in addition but removed "Clair de Lune". All of these pieces are selected each time the player enters the Velvet Room in a fixed order.

Trivia

 * The name is most likely derived from the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Masque of the Red Death." It features a series of 7 rooms representing the different stages of life, and the one just before death is known as the "Velvet Room." In this room, the main character of the story, Prince Prospero, also meets his death.
 * The Velvet Room's license plate number in Persona 4 is CH-8700. This is most likely a reference to Küsnacht, Zurich(.ch is the country code for Switzerland, 8700 is the Küsnacht postal code), the location of the C. G. Jung Institute that Jung himself founded and administered until his death.
 * In the manga adaption of the first game, the room's name is misspelled as "Belbet Room".