| This article is about the mutant creatures in Metaphor: ReFantazio. For ordinary human enemies in the series, see Human. |
The human Homo Avades
Humans (ニンゲン, Ningen)? are a type of monster in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Appearances[]
Profile[]
In the United Kingdom of Euchronia, humans are a class of rare monsters with bizarre, unnatural forms that set them apart from normal beasts. There have been sightings of humans since antiquity, but as encounters have been incredibly rare, little is known about their biology and ecology. Until recently, humans have not been considered a significant threat, and many people regarded them as nothing more than legends.
What is known about humans is that they possess immense physical resilience, their bodies contain vast quantities of magla, they rampage through their surroundings indiscriminately, wield advanced magic beyond the grasp of all sentient beings and are drawn to places with huge concentrations of magla. They appear to be completely immune, or at least highly resistant to conventional weaponry or igniter-based magic and can only be harmed normally by true magic like ones from Archetypes. Large humans are strong enough to slaughter entire armies. They do not have a consistent set of biology; some are able to reproduce, others can live for hundreds of years (which is heavily implied in the case of Homo Margo and Sea Horror Homo Sabara), and the only thing that defines them are the human-like faces or limbs they possess, which also serves as a reminder of what they once were. Despite being by all means monstrous creatures, they appear to retain some sort of intelligence, being seemingly able to follow precise orders and recognize who ordered them and sometimes even take advantage of various fears to lure in prey. Several Homo Tenta are also shown to be non-hostile and are capable of speech.
It was later revealed that they were actual humans just like the other tribes but mutated beyond recognition through intense exposure to melancholia, the toxic form of magla. If exposed to sufficient amounts of melancholia or overwhelmed by extreme, prolonged anxieties, anyone from any of the nine tribes that mutated from human beings can become a human, including tulpa-like thoughtforms such as Will. Transformation into a human will inevitably cause insanity due to the effects of melancholia, even on beings with extremely strong willpower. The only known exception to the rule is Cirsium Zorba, whose profound loyalty to Louis and mental focus in regard to Louis allowed him to regain his already corrupt mind and most of his original form; his only visible changes after his willing transformation are his third eye being forced wide open and turning completely bloodshot, a mouth on his chest that contains a vestigial eye, and his right arm resembling an elongated spinal column complete with a ribcage replacing his hand.
Louis end goal is to force all of the former human beings to evolve into humans, which would (according to him) erase all inequality among the tribes, and leave only those with the will to become "new humans" that will rebuild a stronger civilization devoid of anxiety, which would require him to use the Royal Sceptre and release all of the stagnant melancholia stored within it. To this mean, he would forcefully terrorize the public into a state of panic and render them extremely vulnerable to the forced evolution that would ensue from the royal magic. His primary method of doing so is to use a perverted version of his own family's healing magic to transform random civilians into humans and summon them to destroy the United Kingdom's territories in order to rally popular support and create stagnant magla for the Royal Sceptre through inducing fear, causing an artificial uptick of human attacks all over the kingdom's remote territories. Typically, he would order them to strike a single town or village without warning, wipe it out and disappear, making it difficult for the state army to counter the attacks. Louis himself also has a limited amount of control over the state army after being framed for the prince's assassination, so he could still order the army to withhold any reinforcements that would otherwise come for the affected villages. Right before and during the Tournament for the Throne, he would also make campaign promises in front of the public where he would threaten to kill all who dare defy him; this is heavily implied to be a more subtle form of forcing the public into giving into their anxieties. Around the same time, he plans on ordering Zorba to invade the Regalith Grand Cathedral to seize it, but the king's royal magic prevented anyone from accessing the scepter until someone becomes the most popular candidate for his election, which delayed his plans briefly as he continues to rally popular support in hopes of seizing it again. Finally, he took advantage of a duel between him and Will in front of the Regalith Grand Cathedral to use the same healing magic he used in his false-flag attacks on the protagonist, turning him into a human and telling the general public a half-truth to misdirect them, which would escalate the public's anxiety to murderous levels and overload the Royal Sceptre, causing the sky to turn red with melancholia and ensure that the magla released by the scepter will invariably evolve every single person in the world into humans.
During the final confrontation, Louis is shown to have two separate forms; an angelic, stabilized Archetype-like form known as Archdemon Louis Charadrius and an unstable human known as Destroyer Charadrius. When he gets bested in his Archdemon form, he tries to evolve Will into a human a second time, and once this fails on account of Will temporarily dying out of protest, willingly transforms himself into the unstable Destroyer Charadrius; while he initially retains his intellect and sanity, as the battle rages on, he loses himself to the influence of the melancholia being fueled by his own deep-seated insecurities and fears reaching a boiling point and mutates fully into a human known as Destroyer Charadrius that becomes focused on nothing but the destruction of all tribes for their "sins." This lasts until Will finally defeats him for good by cleaving him and the Royal Sceptre with the power of the King Archetype, dispelling the red skies his massive amount of melancholia created, and sending the majority of humans back into slumber and hiding due to the lack of excessive magla.
List of Humans[]
Regular enemies[]
- Homo Tenta
- Homo Fion / Luma
- Homo Casco
- Homo Oppo
- Homo Fizic
- Homo Stormmu
Mid-bosses[]
Bosses[]
- Homo Gorleo - summoned by Louis to attack the Northern Border Fort, then resurrected by Zorba to distract the party in the Ancient Eldan Sanctum
- Homo Avades - killed by Louis, then resurrected by Zorba to attack the party
- Greatworm Homo Butera - infamous sandworm-like human living in the desert around Martira
- Homo Jaluzo - kept by Joanna Calendula as a pet
- Sea Horror Homo Sabara - encountered by the party on the way to Virga Island
- Homo Margo - mistakenly worshiped by the mustari tribe
- Cirsium Zorba (voluntarily mutated by Louis and retained his sanity)
- Destroyer Charadrius
Miscellaneous[]
- Will (temporarily)
Trivia[]
- The designs of the humans are inspired by the 15th-16th century artworks of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.[1] Most of the known examples are based on Hieronymus' portrayals of actual demons, hell-spawn or in the case of Homo Gorleo, people indulging in debauchery.
- There are exceptions to this trend, however; for example, Destroyer Charadrius is based on illustrations of Lucifer in the Ninth Circle from Hell from The Divine Comedy by French artist Gustave Doré, while several boss humans such as Sea Horror Homo Sabara and Greatworm Homo Butera do not appear to match any entity that appeared in a Hieronymus Bosch artwork.
- As the word "human" refers to a type of monster mutated from human beings, actual human enemies (e.g. guards, soldiers) use the "person" race instead of "human," unlike most other games in the greater Megami Tensei franchise. The original Japanese text uses (人, hito)? for the person race and (ニンゲン, ningen)? in katakana for the monsters.
- Humans are never referred to by name in the game's cutscenes, and in-game characters only refer to them as "humans" or "monsters." Their names are only known in the battle UI.
- According to Junah, even with the recently increased frequency of human attacks, most people in the city have never met one or even know what they look like (implying that a huge portion of the attacks were in fact stunts orchestrated by Louis). Therefore, when Glodell shown up to the headhunting exhibit in Port Brilehaven with the head of a human, he wasn't taken seriously by the audience.
References[]