Atelier Iris 3/Headscratchers

Sijo: There are several facts about the game's story that were never explained:

• What happened to the gods? Did they all die in their war (except for Uroborus?)
  • I don't recall other gods being mentioned.
  • Gregor mentioned their war as having created the Gardens of Ishtar. Note that "Ishtar" was the name of a Babylonian goddess, though that doesn't mean it was the same one here.
  • Never got that far with Gregor, but if they're not around then they probably did die. Or they're not around because, you know, gods usually aren't the sort of beings to be 'around'.
• Is Gregor a god? If so, why didn't he intervene? Did he lose his powers?
• Who was the being possessing Crowley, and why did it want the world destroyed so badly? (My personal theory: it was meant to be The Devil, or at least A Devil. Note how "Crowley" is one of the old nicknames for Satan, though in this case it was the proper name of the person possessed.)
  • He's not a devil, he was a spirit disgusted by the greed and corruption of humanity. The name Crowley probably refers to the occultist Aleister Crowley.
  • That doesn't justify not giving the main villain an actual name of its own. Lazy of the writers.
    • He was only known as the true villain for a single cutscene, the writers probably didn't think he needed a name.
      • It would have been nice if they hadn't kept calling him/her/it "Crowley", though, leading to the common perception in fandom that it was Crowley who was doing all this to Iris, when the real Crowley was an innocent and gentle man from all accounts.
• How did the portals in Zey Meruze open? Who opened them, and when? (The Squawk Chief claim humans first came to their world 50 years ago, thought that doesn't mean the portal wasn't there earlier.) Was it the war of the gods (that happened before Man existed) or (more likely) the attempt to enslave the Uroborus?
  • Probably the latter.
• Why can't humans stay in the Alterworlds for more than short while, but the Beastmen can come and go as they please? It sounds like a restriction imposed by *somebody* (a god?).
  • Beastmen can stay in the Alterworlds as long as they want because that's where they're from. The beastmen you see in Zey Meruze probably are natives of that dimension.
  • They are natives who emigrated, that's a plot point. But you'd think they would fade back to their world, the way humans do, but they don't.
  • Never remembered that, but since they're Beastmen, I assume they function differently from humans. Either that, or since Zey Meruze is a hub of sorts, possibly the real world, maybe anything can stay there as long as it wants (except ghosts and Gregor).
• Is Iris the same character in all three games? (She COULD be - even though the Iris in Iris 2 was the incarnation of a goddess, she might have incarnated in a human of the Fortner family. This would mean that AI 2 takes place a decade or so before AI 3, and AI 1 several centuries later (only her hologram is seen there.)
  • She's the same character in Atelier Iris 1 and 2, however she's a completely unrelated character in 3, which takes place in a separate timeline.
• Why did the spell on the Uroborus break? Was it just not permanent? If so, does it mean it will escape *again* in the far future?
  • Would Iris' wish be more powerful than the original sealing magic?
    • Yes, due to the memories and emotions of everyone she met on her journey reaching Uroborus. Essentially, she didn't seal Uroborus (at least not in the good ending), it's more like she sent a mesage to him asking him to stop.
    • Didn't they already ask him to stop before fighting him? And why would a message require Iris to vanish for a year? Sorry but that was just not very clear (other than being for dramatic purposes).
      • The 'message' I'm referring to was a spiritual message made by all the feelings of the people of the world, not just talking to him. She disappeared due to the rules of the Escalario.
• If only a Fortner could use the Escalario, why make it so hard to find all 8 gems?
  • Meh, most of them (except maybe some of the later ones) weren't that hard to find, especially with the pillars of light marking them out.
  • What I meant was, why not simply pass the gems down along with the Escalario? Why put dangerous guardians on them, too? What if Iris had gotten killed by one? Not very smart thinking...
    • Let's assume they thought there'd be multiple descendants of Fortner, this was probably a way of selecting the 'right' one.
• Why didn't Iris tell her friends about the visions she received from each gem? At first you can say she wasn't sure it wasn't just a dream, but afterwards, she HAD to realize their importance.
  • Maybe it was their importance that caused Iris to not tell anyone, as the visions may have ended up as a 'personal' thing for her that she didn't want to burden the others with.
  • If Iris had realized that she had to sacrifice herself to stop the Uroborus, that might make sense, but that only happens towards the end.
• Why didn't Ash just *tell* the heroes what he knew? Especially after finding out that only Iris could use the Escalario?
  • He only found out just as Iris was cursed, the reason he attacked them again was to force her to wish to stop Uroborus rather than heal herself, and the others because they wouldn't want to see Iris die. He probably did plan on telling Iris alone once he was in control of her.
  • Right. Beat the heroes up, that will make them trust you.
    • To be fair, that is pretty much the sort of person Ash is.
• Edge hinted that he had a tragic past. What was it?
  • His family all died in a fire; I'm pretty sure the game says this somewhere.
  • I don't recall it, but maybe I just missed it.
• If Crowley wanted the Uroborus to destroy the world, why did he manipulate the heroes into gathering the Escalario gems?
  • Crowley can't do it himself as he's not a Fortner, and he cursed Iris so she'd spend her only wish healing herself, thus making Uroborus unstoppable.
• What was the point of fighting the Uroborus if force couldn't stop him anyway? (other than fulfilling an RPG cliche.)
  • Iris, Edge and Nell didn't really think that Uroborus was undefeatable and only realised exactly what they were up against after facing him themselves. Kind of like Persona 3.
• How was the 'relationship' between Pukko and Phenyl resolved?
  • Phenyl probably wants nothing more to do with Pukko and, if all goes her way, probably never will.