Infel Phira in Sarre Mode
Infel Phira (インフェル・ピラ, Inferu Pira?), romanized as Infel Pira in the official localization, is a large sphere-shaped artifact that can be seen floating in the skies above the Second Tower of Ar tonelico. It was created 400 years prior to the events of Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica as a step towards creating Metafalica, and currently serves as the Song Server for the IPD Reyvateils. Its name means "Seed of Love" in the Hymmnos Language.[1]
Overview[]
Compared to Ar tonelico, Infel Phira's power output appears laughably small: it is a measly 0.1% of what Ar tonelico is capable of outputting. Despite this, the Infel Phira Dependent (IPD) Reyvateils, the Reyvateils whose Cosmospheres are hosted on Infel Phira, can Sing faster and more effectively than any other kind of Reyvateil.[2][3]
This is thanks to a dialect of Hymmnos that was developed specifically for use with Infel Phira: the New Testament of Pastalie. This dialect is much closer to actual machine code, which makes it many times faster to process than the Central Standard Note. What the Song Server lacks in raw power, it makes up for with sheer throughput.[2]
Another defining feature of Infel Phira is its ability to accomplish different tasks by changing its Mode. A Mode Shift causes the Song Server to reconfigure itself into a new appearance in accordance with that task. The switch can only be initiated by Infel Phira's Administrator: the Queen, also known as the Maiden of Mio. The ultimate goal of this Mode Shift is to put Infel Phira into Metafalica Mode, where it can sustain a Heart of the Land.[2]
Some of the Modes make use of the fact that IPD Reyvateils are connected to each other at the 8th and 9th levels of their Cosmospheres. Replekia Mode, for example, uses this connection to channel extra power to Infel Phira for use as a devastating energy weapon. Messela Mode, on the other hand, forces all the IPDs to act as one.
However, this has the demerit that they cannot craft individual feelings with the same intensity as normal Reyvateils, leading to their Song Magic having weaker raw power. Similarly, this is the reason for the IPDs having no Mind Guardians: the lack of these strong individual feelings was the reason why the programs and routines for the Guardians were removed from Infel Phira's design and specifications.[4][5][6]
Another difference Infel Phira has with Ar tonelico and Harvestasha is the fact that it has no Hymn Code system: while the IPDs have the frequency band for it in their Cosmospheres, their Spectra is never registered into a system due to the fact that Infel Phira bases its Hymmnos Extract authentication on two factors: Potential Level (commonly called the IPD Level) and the possession of the Queen Registry. The Potential Level prevents the Downloading of Hymn Crystals whose wave flow demands would exceed the IPD's ability to provide them, and it additionally locks out particularly important or dangerous Songs to anybody who does not have administrative authority over the Server.[2][7]
Finally, its final feature is the fact that it has the narrowest range of all existing Song Servers in Ar Ciel: as a consequence of its lower power output, it only covers the areas around Metafalss.[8]
History[]
Precedents[]
The history of Infel Phira began little after Jaza's theories were discovered and deciphered by a radical political faction of Metafalss. Given that the creation of Metafalica required the sacrifice of a Reyvateil to be completed, according to what Jaza had researched, the people abandoned the radicals, which, wanting to regain their support, began searching for a method that would allow them to try and create the paradise everyone yearned for without sacrificing anyone.[9]
The method found was creating something that could be used as a substitute for the sacrifice that Jaza's EXEC_METAFALICA/. needed to accomplish its functions, and so, the Infel Phira Project was born. This version of Infel Phira was supposed to be only a mechanism for creating the land, so unlike the version that was built later on, this one didn't have any Song Server capabilities, and was entirely dependent on Sol Marta (and by extension, on the First Tower of Ar tonelico). However, all the initial attempts at building it never passed the First Stage and always ended in utter failure due to their technology still not having reached the appropriate level for it in spite of the theories being flawless. Due to this, the Grand Bell decided to forget about this project and leave it to fade away from history.[10][11]
Grammul's Arrival[]
Then, on a certain day in 3258 AD, the Grand Bell made the announcement that the project would be restarted, thanks to a special development: a scientist, Dr. Grammul was hired by them, because of the acceptance his Super Reyvateil Theory had gained among the public. In there, it was suggested that Infel Phira should be a completely independent system from the First Tower and use the Reyvateils that would be linked to it (the IPDs) as its main power source. And with that alone not being enough, Grammul also proposed to combine the powers of all the IPDs Singing together into a single consciousness and a single Song, which would be what would allow fulfilling the extreme requirements for wave flow and spectrum required for EXEC_METAFALICA/., and to avoid sacrificing anyone.[12]
However, the part about voiding the need for sacrifices ended up being false, as the IPD that would end up being the Administrator for Infel Phira (who is currently known by the title of Maiden of Mio) would end up being transmigrated into a Heart of the Land, and into the basis for the land. However, this part was never shown to the public. The Grand Bell then assembled a team of outstanding engineers: Team Lakra, and after seven long years, the First Stage of Infel Phira was completed successfully.[13]
The First IPD[]
The concept of the IPD Reyvateils naturally came together with the development of a separate Song Server from Ar tonelico, so they were created in parallel to Infel Phira's construction. So after many failed experiments and continued research, the very first IPD Infel was finally transcribed to Infel Phira in 3291 AD. Once this experiment turned out to be successful, the Spectrum Gene that was used for Infel was implanted into other Reyvateils through incomplete Installs of D-Cellophanes, making it possible to change the Server on which they depended from Ar tonelico to Infel Phira and creating the IPD subclass of Reyvateils.[14][15]
Thanks to this, the Grand Bell established that from that time onwards, there would be a second Maiden that would rule Metafalss, the Maiden of Mio, while the Maiden that already existed since nearly 300 years ago would be called the Maiden of Homura.
However, this atmosphere filled with happiness would not last for long: a few years later, the fact that Metafalica would still need sacrifices to become a reality was leaked to the public, and all the support that Grammul had gathered went away in less than one day. And not being enough with that, Infel had already found and corrected all the flaws that Grammul's theory had, discovering the existence of the Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loops and basing the new theory for creating Metafalica on them. Due to both of these facts, combined with his old age, Grammul was fired from the project and Infel was appointed as the new head of the Metafalica and Infel Phira Projects.[16]
Infel's Work[]
After obtaining the leadership of the Infel Phira Project, Infel and her team, the People of Mio, began programming the Hymmnos dialect that would be exclusively used by Infel Phira: the New Testament of Pastalie, in 3308 AD. It was designed to take advantage of Infel Phira's lower instruction count and higher execution timing, allowing the IPDs to Sing much faster and with a more powerful range of effect than the Reyvateils on Ar tonelico or Harvestasha would be able to attain. However, this does not mean that the other Hymmnos dialects would not work in it, given that Infel Phira was also built with an emulation layer for every single Hymmnos word registered in Ar tonelico's Hymmnoserver, allowing the IPDs to sing in any dialect they wish, but getting the best efficiency and power output from singing in New Testament of Pastalie.
The first demonstration of this came with the experiment known as Metafalica-α that was carried out in 3310 AD, in which Infel, Nenesha and the People of Mio all joined their feelings to create a small Heart of the Land. This proved beyond any doubt that Metafalica was achievable, and it greatly boosted the morale of the researchers involved as well as that of the people in general.[17][16]
Infel Phira's Completion[]
After all the structural and programming work in Infel Phira was completed, Infel dedicated herself to analyze the first version of METHOD_METAFALICA/. in order to improve and optimize its execution, and she finally completed its final version around the time at which the Second and final Stage for Infel Phira reached its conclusion: 3312 AD. With this, the stage was set for both Maidens and the IPDs to attempt to create Metafalica for real the following year, however...[18]
The War Against the Goddess[]
When Infel and Nenesha tried singing Metafalica together, the IPDs saw in Infel's heart that she was creating Metafalica for the sake of her research and to realize Nenesha's dream instead of doing it out of pure selflessness. This caused the majority of them to abandon the effort, thus rendering METHOD_METAFALICA/. completely useless and forcing Nenesha to extract power from Frelia to be able to Sing EXEC_METAFALICA/. to the end. Due to this, Raki descended from Sol Marta and killed Nenesha to regain the D-Cellophane, which also led Infel to declare war to the Goddess. She then rushed to the Lakra System and using it, she mobilized all the IPDs to try and kill Frelia.[19]
Infel Phira became an instrumental weapon for the Metafalssians during the period, given the huge amount of power the Replekia Mode could release. Raki soon became aware of this fact, and while she never could destroy it, the Divine Armies under her command inflicted great damage on the Song Server, killing many IPDs due to the memory sectors where their Cosmospheres resided being destroyed, and destroying the emotional limiter that Infel Phira was equipped with.
After the War, it was agreed that Infel Phira would be shut down, and all the data it contained would be erased, as per the conditions described in the Treaty of Hibernation. Infel Phira would stop being a Song Server, and become a lodging for the souls of the people of Metafalss once EXEC_HIBERNATION/. would be Sung. As part of the conditions, the People of Mio were forced to live in seclusion in Kanakana Pier and develop the programming for Hibernation, while the Grand Bell would dedicate themselves to reduce the number of Iiving IPDs and, as ordered by Infel, seal away or destroy all documentation related to Infel Phira.[20]
While the recurrent problem of the IPD outbreaks started a few years after the war, there was little the people could do against it due to the loss of knowledge about what was their real cause and the fact that even if they had known the method for solving them, using or intervening Infel Phira was completely forbidden by the Grand Bell. These same prohibitions were part of the reasons that led to the Neo Elemia-Metafalss War in 3424 AD, and what nearly brought about Metafalss' defeat in the war.[21]
The Creation of Metafalica[]
On 3751 AD, Chancellor Alfman Uranous seized the power in a coup d'état where the current Pope and the Maiden, Arshe, died; and after installing a new regime centered around his persona, he declared war on the Goddess and proclaimed he and his followers would make Metafalica a reality. Coupled with this, a Reyvateil researcher called Dr. Loude came from the faraway land of Sol Cluster, and with his assistance, Alfman ordered to search, recover and decipher all the documentation they could find related to Infel Phira, as he intended to use the power of Replekia to challenge and kill the Goddess, as nobody in the Grand Bell had any knowledge any more about the Metafalica Mode's purpose.[21]
He also modified the policies regarding the IPDs to focus on capturing them instead of killing them, and the forbidding of Dive Therapy in order to build an army of them, so they would be able to lend their powers to the Maiden he installed into power: Cloche Leythal Pastalie.[22]
While ultimately Alfman was unable to kill the Goddess even with the power of Replekia backing him, and he was forced to run away from Metafalss after noticing the first attempt at creating Metafalica carried out by Cloche and Luca Trulywaath was a failure, the discovery and unsealing of the documents from 400 years ago carried out by Loude and Jakuri were instrumental to establishing the conditions for the creation of Metafalica.
Although Infel Phira's memory and the Cosmospheres lodged in it received grievous damage due to the Sacred Army making Frelia Sing EXEC_HIBERNATION/., ultimately Croix Bartel managed to stall the processes Lakra was carrying out for it enough for Luca to interrupt Frelia from interrupt it, and said damage was then undone when a nearly dying Cloche Sang METHOD_IMPLANTA/. to restore Infel Phira back to its normal state.
After both Cloche and Luca cleared the Infelsphere that served as the test for their bonds, and they and their friends convinced Infel to give them a chance to create Metafalica after several grueling trials and battles, they both managed to create the new land.
Nowadays, Infel Phira is embedded into the great tree at the center of the Metafalica continent where its Heart of the Land is located, and it continues providing the power of Song Magic to the IPDs, now free from the curse of the IPD outbreaks, and lodging the Cosmospheres that make up the Will of Metafalica, the consciousness of the new land herself.
Power Source[]
While Ar tonelico has a dedicated power source, the Orgel of Origins, Infel Phira lacks one; it is instead powered by the IPD Reyvateils connected to it. At all times, a portion of every IPD's Dynamic H-Waves is converted into Dynamic D-Waves and stored within Infel Phira's Symphonic Power battery. Because of the large number of living IPDs, the battery can be charged within a short period of time.
When an IPD sings Song Magic, they expend the Symphonic Power within Infel Phira's battery. To prevent the battery from draining completely, the amount of Dynamic H-Waves taken from the IPDs increases to compensate for the power being used. Additionally, Infel Phira contains a security measure that limits how many IPDs may sing Song Magic at any given time.[13]
Modes[]
These are the forms that Infel Phira can take at the command of the Maiden of Mio.
Sarre Mode[]
Infel Phira in Sarre (Normal) Mode
Sarre Mode, also known as Normal Mode or Individual Consciousness Mode, is the form that Infel Phira takes while it is not receiving instructions from the Queen. While in this Mode, it functions similarly to Ar tonelico, hosting the IPDs as individual Reyvateils and allowing them to Sing Song Magic. In this mode, Infel Phira uses a model of "one input equals one output" for Song Magic execution, so there are no restrictions in Song Magic use regardless of what the Queen is doing.[23]
Replekia Mode[]
Infel Phira in Replekia Mode
In Replekia Mode, the E-Spots of the IPDs are opened, allowing them to share their Dynamic H-Waves with the other IPDs while keeping their Soulspaces separated. This is used to amplify the power of a single Song Magic. The amplification is proportional to the number of IPDs that chose to accept the opening of their E-Spot.
To initiate Replekia Mode, the Queen must Sing the Hymmnos Extract METHOD_REPLEKIA/.. Other IPDs aside from the Queen can also use their own Song Magic while Infel Phira is in Replekia Mode due to having an output limit of several few dozens.[23]
However, it must be noted that the wave spectrum and flow frequencies the Replekia Mode achieves cannot reach the same levels as the ones found in Metafalica Mode, due to the fact the Songs of the IPDs get combined after they have reached the Binary Field and been converted into D-Waves. Therefore, the SHW Enhanced Effect is not present.[24]
Metafalica (Tornekia) Mode[]
Infel Phira in Metafalica Mode
Metafalica Mode, also known as Shared Consciousness Mode and originally called Tornekia Mode, is the end goal of Infel Phira's Mode-shifting capabilities. While in this Mode, the Soulspaces of the IPDs are fully connected so that they may share their feelings freely, and in doing so, lay the foundations for a Heart of the Land.
Infel Phira has taken this form three times during its history: Once when Infel and Nenesha attempted to Sing EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/., once when Cloche Sang METHOD_METAFALICA/. by herself, and lastly when Cloche and Luca successfully Sang EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/..
It was originally planned that the Queen would Sing an Ancient Metafalss Note Hymmnos Extract called METHOD_TORNEKIA/. in order to switch Infel Phira into Metafalica Mode; this is why it was originally referred to as Tornekia Mode. Once Infel realized that METHOD_TORNEKIA/. would not be powerful enough to create a Heart of the Land, she developed METHOD_METAFALICA/. as a patch for EXEC_METAFALICA/.. Tornekia was then changed to Metafalica in order to match the new Song's name.
A particularity of this mode is that it has an execution model of "approximately 100000 inputs equals 1 output", meaning that no other IPD is allowed to execute any Song Magic while the Maiden of Mio is executing METHOD_METAFALICA/.[23]
Additionally, this mode presents a practical application of the SHW Enhanced Effect due to the fact that it fuses the Songs of the IPDs when they are still in their respective Cosmospheres, in H-Wave state. This is what allows it to reach the wave frequency and flows requirements needed for the creation of a land and its Will.[24]
Messela Mode[]
Messela Mode, also known as System Control Mode, forces all of the IPDs to share the same knowledge without sharing their consciousness. This allows the Queen to orchestrate the IPDs as she sees fit, which is why Messela Mode is intended to be used only in emergency situations.
The fact that it allows the Queen to control the will and emotions of the IPDs, however, makes it a dangerous Mode to use. The Grand Bell eventually prohibited its use due to the potential violations of the rights of the IPDs, although this ended being a loss as well for them since the prohibition left them with no means to control the IPD outbreaks later on.
Torcarrol Mode[]
Torcarrol Mode, also known as the Limited-Scale Consciouness Gathering Mode, was used to test the viability of Metafalica Mode. It automatically enables all the IPDs in an area of 10 Stons around the Queen, or Queens to share their consciouness with each other, allowing the Queen to remotely control them through a limited-scale LPM control network established using the same principles that rule Synchronity Chains and multiple-Reyvateil Songs.[4] This Mode was seen as useful for localized warfare purposes, but it was also sealed away. Currently, an activation of this Mode under anomalous conditions serves as the cause of the Negative variant of IPD Outbreaks.
Deenelmaite Mode[]
Deenelmaite Mode fuses the consciousnesses of all the living IPD Reyvateils into a single Reyvateil. This was an early attempt at fusing the feelings of the IPDs together, which served as the main point behind Grammul's ultimate Reyvateil theory. However, research conducted afterward found a major flaw on it: the fusion of the Reyvateils' Soulspaces was permanent, and even if Infel Phira returned to Sarre Mode, the IPDs would not return to their original states. Given no solution was ultimately found for this flaw, this Mode was abandoned before it reached the experimental stage.[3]
Bonus Explanation: The Metafalica Sphere[]
Because Infel Phira was designed to become the Heart of the Land itself once Metafalica is successfully created, all the data addresses within Infel Phira are defragmented and remapped to sectors that are recognized as working correctly. Since this nulls out the possibility of writing the Cosmospheres of the IPDs into bad sectors, this nullifies the IPD Outbreaks.[4] This also deletes the backup memory banks used by METHOD_IMPLANTA/. and the data of IPDs that do not have a physical body anymore, which is why Infel disappeared upon the creation of the land. Additionally, after the Heart of the Land is created, it is impossible to revert Infel Phira back into Sarre Mode, and neither the Maiden of Mio can ever harness the power of Replekia again.[4] However, it has been hypothesized that Infel Phira would be able to become Replekia or Sarre depending on the feelings of the IPDs, but there have been no details revealed regarding how this would work.[25]
References[]
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica - Catalog, World Terminology, Infel Phira entry.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - World Section, Page 104
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - World Section, Page 105
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ar Portal - Ar Ciel Technical Data Compilation Room Issue #2
- ↑ Ar Portal - Toukousphere Issue #79: Technical Service Center
- ↑ Ar Portal - Toukousphere Issue #80: Technical Service Center
- ↑ Ar Portal - Toukousphere Issue #63: Technical Service Center
- ↑ Ar Portal - Toukousphere Issue #70: Technical Service Center
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 90
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 88
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 89
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 91
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 91
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 92
- ↑ Ar Portal - Ar Ciel Technical Data Compilation Room Issue #8
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 93
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 84
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 94
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 96
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 97
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 98
- ↑ Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Setting Encyclopedia - History Section, Page 99
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Ar Portal - Ar Ciel Technical Data Compilation Room Issue #11
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Ar Portal - Toukousphere Issue #41: Technical Service Center
- ↑ Ar Portal - Toukousphere Issue #75: Technical Service Center