The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings is the second act in Chapter III of the Archon Quests.
Quests[]
- The Coming of the Sabzeruz Festival
- The Arrival of the Sabzeruz Festival
- The Continuation of the Sabzeruz Festival
- The Samsara of the Sabzeruz Festival
- The Causality of the Sabzeruz Festival
- The Empty Illusions of the Sabzeruz Festival
- The End of the Sabzeruz Festival
- Dawn (Denouement)
Summary[]
- The Coming of the Sabzeruz Festival
After returning to the Grand Bazaar, the Traveler and Paimon recount their escapades in Port Ormos to Dunyarzad, who expresses her wish to join them in the future only to be scolded by Dehya. Seeing that Paimon is tired, Dunyarzad provides the traveling pair with accommodations for the night. The next morning, the two meet up with Dunyarzad and begin browsing the event venues as Dunyarzad explains the traditions. After departing from Vihar's venue — where the player has to pick a mystery box of Yalda Candy flavors — the three run into Eremite mercenaries planning on taking Dunyarzad hostage for ransom. Dehya appears and takes the mercenaries on alone so the three can escape.
Although they successfully get away, Dunyarzad's frail constitution leaves her exhausted. Dehya soon catches up, having driven off the mercenaries but getting wounded in return. It turns out that she was injured because she was still getting acclimated to her new greatsword; she sold her old one to donate towards the Sabzeruz Festival. Dunyarzard's health begins to falter again, so the Traveler agrees to bring her somewhere safe while Dehya patrols the area. As they rest, Dunyarzad undoes the wrappings around her palms and wrists, revealing that she was born with Eleazar and that it has progressed to a terminal stage; as such, she is doing everything she can for the Sabzeruz Festival so she will not leave behind any regrets once she passes away. Realizing it is almost time for the Dance of Sabzeruz, the three hurry to the Grand Bazaar.
They arrive to find Nilou being confronted by Grand Sage Azar and his secretary, Setaria. Azar claims that the festival violates several laws and prematurely shuts the festival down, declaring that all public art performances will be banned starting with the next Jnagarbha Day and departing with some enigmatic words about celebrating "the birth of that god to your heart's content." Although Nilou tries to come up with a way of continuing with the dance anyways, Dunyarzad decides that they should comply with the Grand Sage's orders. The Traveler and Paimon lament that given Dunyarzad's situation, she will have to live out the rest of her life with the regret of being unable to see Nilou's performance.
Elsewhere, a *beep* sound is heard as an unknown voice states that "The project has entered its most critical phase."
- The Arrival of the Sabzeruz Festival
The morning of the Sabzeruz Festival repeats itself, causing the Traveler to feel increasing amounts of déjà vu. After picking the mystery box at Vihar's stall, the Traveler takes their leave and heads to Lambad Tavern, believing they might shake off the sensation by eating something they'd never tried before, Charcoal-Baked Ajilenakh Cake. Much to the Traveler's surprise, the flavor is familiar despite the incongruence with their memories, meaning they must have tried doing this before.
As they leave, they find Dunyarzad sitting at the bench, having escaped her pursuers alone. Although the two sense that Dunyarzad is less energetic than usual, she attributes it to her constitution and heads to the Grand Bazaar, where Azar and Setaria once again confront Nilou. Having failed to make any discoveries, the two go to sleep and hear the same beep again. Meanwhile, the project continues, despite seeing a drop in "Jnana Energy" output levels.
- The Continuation of the Sabzeruz Festival
As the festival loops again, the Traveler has the flavors for each mystery box memorized, much to Paimon and Vihar's shock. Upon spotting a strange girl, the Traveler chases after her to the Bimarstan hospital, where they find a second Dunyarzad sleeping on a bed. The mysterious girl has them use Canned Knowledge containing the memories they have accumulated from countless days' worth of the one-day festival 'samsara', or cycle. The Dunyarzad on the bed is the real one, continuously weakening with each samsara. The girl introduces herself as Nahida and asks them to find a way to break the cycle while she tries to delay Dunyarzad's illness, tasking them with discovering the reason behind the samsara. She has many of the answers they need but cannot tell them directly, as it would be harmful to their mental wellbeing.
After failing to find any useful information, they decide to enlist Dehya's help. After convincing her that something is amiss, they take her to see the real Dunyarzad. While Dehya is unable to see or hear Dunyarzad or Nahida, she senses Dunyarzad's aura and is convinced that they are telling her the truth. After listening to the Traveler's explanation, Dehya suspects that Sumeru Akademiya's sages are responsible for the samsara and are using the Akasha to pull it off. Nahida explains that the Akasha uses the Dendro Archon's Gnosis to operate, compiling knowledge and granting it to its users. When the Traveler suggests their increasing mental fatigue is related to the Akasha, Dehya correctly deduces that the Akasha is extracting information from their minds to figuratively create a single, massive brain which can compute any information the sages desire.
The three take their terminals off to cut themselves off from the samsara, but hear the beeping sound again from within their heads and fall unconscious. Meanwhile, the mysterious voice (Khajeh's) warns that the project is taking longer than expected, and that there will likely be casualties. Another mysterious voice (Azar's) decides to continue on.
- The Samsara of the Sabzeruz Festival
The next day begins, confirming that removing their Akasha Terminals is useless, but that the Akasha itself is certainly involved. Nahida refuses to reveal her identity saying it is currently unimportant, but does compare herself as being "the Moon". When they find Dehya again, the two notice that she wasn't injured fighting the kidnappers. She acknowledges that the ease with which she can use her new greatsword is abnormal as that requires building up muscle memory, making the two hopeful that something might have changed due to the removal of their terminals. However, Nahida simply congratulates them on their new information and tells them to wait for the next day, as it's not worth speculating today on what they will learn tomorrow.
After the beep, Azar orders the project to continue, believing that "these sacrifices are trivial" compared to their end goal.
- The Causality of the Sabzeruz Festival
The following day, the Traveler amends their theory that the samsara is not a time loop but simply mass memory erasure of a single day which would cause one to think that the previous day hadn't happened, but are told it is wrong and Nahida suggests they check in with Dehya. Dehya points out that while the Mora people spent during each loop could technically be refunded to them, perishables like food keep being 'reset'. She proves that it isn't possible by showing them a training dummy she's used over several days, stating that the sages would have no way to reproduce her swordsmanship of each strike for each loop. Concluding that they are not in the real world, they realize that they have never tried leaving the city. When they tell Nahida their plan, she reveals that they already tried twice but failed to return throughout the night. Curious as to why they have no relevant memories despite Nahida's prior intervention, they decide to test it out the next day.
- The Empty Illusions of the Sabzeruz Festival
In the morning, the Traveler discovers that two days have passed since they started their plan. On the first day, the Traveler left the city alone so Paimon could witness what happened, but immediately disappeared after leaving the city limits and failed to return, while the Traveler's own memories of it were erased. On the second day, Nahida modified an Akasha Terminal so the Traveler could record messages about what they saw in the outside world.
In the present, the recorded messages lead to the revelation that the Akasha compiles wisdom by stealing the people of Sumeru's dreams, which occur during a stage of sleep when brain activity is high, and the sages' rhetoric about dreams being detrimental to people is a lie used to cover up this fact. The samsara is putting the consciousnesses of the people of Sumeru into a collective dream of the Sabzeruz Festival, which makes them repeatedly "wake up" to a new day while the Akasha mass harvests their now-vacant dreams. On Nahida's invitation to guess her identity, they also deduce that she is actually Lesser Lord Kusanali, the Dendro Archon they have been looking for. As they contemplate why the sages' end goal, the beep rings and they await the next day.
- The End of the Sabzeruz Festival
The next day, Nahida sadly informs them that Dunyarzad's consciousness disappeared, as it could no longer handle the Akasha harvesting. She confirms that she was the voice that inspired Dunyarzad as a child, and is upset that as "not a real archon", she wasn't able to save her most faithful follower, but they comfort her saying that archons are still allowed to be sad. The Traveler and Paimon are also saddened by her apparent demise, but Nahida tells them how to break the samsara; by making the host of the samsara realize they're dreaming. Only humans can create dreams, and the samsara was created from the dream of an unaware host. Once the host becomes aware of the dream (lucid dreaming) they can then take full control of it. In the meantime, Nahida plans to leave the city to travel the stolen dreams for a last-ditch effort that she doesn't specify.
They first decide to go to Vihar, but discover that other than him having a crush on Dunyarzad, he isn't the host. After hearing Dehya yelling in the distance, the Traveler goes to her to help against the Eremites, even though Dehya handled them herself in the previous cycles.
Ordering Dehya to leave, the Traveler takes their anger over Dunyarzad's fate on the Eremites before deciding to investigate what Dunyarzad had forgotten. However, feeling it would be rude to enter the inn room without permission, Paimon notices an open window and flies inside. She discovers a diary of compiled research on Lesser Lord Kusanali based on interviews Dunyarzad conducted with people, with the goal of gifting it to the Traveler and Paimon. Running off to the puppet Dunyarzad, they thank it before sitting down on the nearby bench. They then decide to watch the Dance of Sabzeruz and find Azar and Setaria scolding Nilou. However, the Traveler steps in, causing them to freeze; this confirms their suspicions that they were actually puppets, as the sages would not subject themselves for dream harvesting.
Nilou is surprised by the Traveler's intervention before they notice that the flowers at the back of the stage are actual Padisarahs, causing them to realize that Nilou is the host of the dream, since genuine Padisarahs have been long extinct. The Traveler instructs Nilou to close her eyes and imagine Azar and Setaria vanishing, which removes the puppets from the dream. As Paimon wonders how to break her out of the dream, Nilou realizes that she's dreaming and explains about the tale of the First Sage. Now aware she is lucid dreaming, Nilou performs the dance as the dreamscape dissolves, during which the two also see Dunyarzad's spirit in the crowd, watching Nilou dance. Waking up, they run back to where they met Nahida, finding Dunyarzad with her mind fully intact if nursing a headache, and Katheryne next to her.
- Dawn
Talking to "Katheryne", they realize by her voice that it is just Nahida possessing her. She suggests speaking elsewhere and they stop by the same bench, where Nahida reveals that after leaving the city in the last cycle, she successfully found a fragment of Dunyarzhad's dying consciousness. It was too weak for the Akasha to harvest, but as Nahida had suspected, also now outside its control. She then used all of her power to sustain Dunyarzhad's dream until the samsara broke, which the Traveler and Paimon had accomplished just in time. After answering their questions, she tells them she is significantly tired from keeping Dunyarzhad alive, but tells the two that the Akasha would be unable to host an event of such size for some time. She plans to investigate what caused the sages to step out of line before disconnecting from Katheryne to rest. As she leaves, Katheryne comes back to her own senses and asks the two what happened.
Achievements[]
There are 4 Achievements obtainable from The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings:
| Achievement | Category | Description | 
|
|---|---|---|---|
| The Flavor of Déjà Vu |  Wonders of the World
|
Pick the Sunsettia-flavored box of candy by yourself. | 5 |
| Even Paimon Wouldn't Eat That! | Wonders of the World
|
Eat a visibly terrible Coconut Charcoal Cake. | 5 |
| All Dreams Must End With an Awakening | Wonders of the World
|
Wake from the Sabzeruz samsara. | 5 |
| The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings | Wonders of the World
|
Complete "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings." | 10 |
Soundtracks[]
Trivia[]
- In Part 2: The Arrival of the Sabzeruz Festival, Dehya's left arm temporarily has a bandage wrapped around it after receiving an injury as a consequence of her battle with Eremite mercenaries, and loses it in Part 4: The Samsara of the Sabzeruz Festival. These are some of the few instances a character model changes in-game.
- The Chinese names of all quests (except the dénouement) in this act are likely references to the chapter names of the Japanese visual novel Steins;Gate:
Quest Name Steins;Gate Chapter Name English Name Chinese Name The Coming of the Sabzeruz Festival 终将到来的花神诞祭
The Eventual Coming of the Sabzeruz Festival始まりと終わりのプロローグ
The Beginning and Ending of PrologueThe Arrival of the Sabzeruz Festival 已然来临的花神诞祭
The Already Arrival of the Sabzeruz Festival存在証明のパンドラ
The Being Confirmation of PandoraThe Continuation of the Sabzeruz Festival 流转存续的花神诞祭
The Circulating Continuation of the Sabzeruz Festival亡失流転のソリチュード
The Circulating Lost of SolitudeThe Samsara of the Sabzeruz Festival 轮回意志的花神诞祭
The Reincarnated Will of the Sabzeruz Festival循環座標のアルタイル
The Reincarnated Coordinates of AltairThe Causality of the Sabzeruz Festival 因果命运的花神诞祭
The Destined Causality of the Sabzeruz Festival因果律のメルト
The Causality Law of MeltdownThe Empty Illusions of the Sabzeruz Festival 空幻回响的花神诞祭
The Void Echoes of the Sabzeruz Festival空理彷徨のランデヴー
The Void Hesitation of RendezvousThe End of the Sabzeruz Festival 终将结束的花神诞祭
The Eventual Ending of the Sabzeruz Festival終わりと始まりのプロローグ
The Ending and Beginning of Prologue
- The Chinese name of the achievement The Flavor of Déjà Vu (Chinese: 负荷口味的既视感 "Load Flavor of Déjà Vu") is also a reference to the Steins;Gate series: the animated film Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu (Chinese: 命运石之门 负荷领域的既视感).
- The name of Act II references Quatrain IX of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, which discusses the ephemerality of all things.
- According to Where the Boat of Consciousness Lies, the Sabzeruz Festival Samsara has 168 cycles.
- This is equivalent to 168 days, 24 weeks, or approximately five and a half months.
Other Languages[]
| Language | Official Name | Literal Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| English | The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings | — |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 千朵玫瑰带来的黎明 Qiānduǒ Méiguī Dàilái de Límíng | The Dawn a Thousand Roses Brings |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 千朵玫瑰帶來的黎明 Qiānduǒ Méiguī Dàilái de Límíng | |
| Japanese | 黎明を告げる千の薔薇 Reimei wo Tsugeru Sen no Bara | The Dawn a Thousand Roses Foretells |
| Korean | 여명여명을 밝히는 천 송이 장미장미 Yeomyeong-eul Balkineun Cheon Song'i Jangmi | A Thousand Roses that Brighten Dawn |
| Spanish | El alba de las mil rosas | The Dawn of a Thousand Roses |
| French | L'aube accordant mille roses | The Dawn Granting a Thousand Roses |
| Russian | Сто свежих роз приносит утро Sto svezhikh roz prinosit utro | A Hundred Fresh Roses Bring the Morning[• 1] |
| Thai | พันนวาระนำพารุ่งอรุณ Phan Nawara Nampha Rung-Arun | A Thousand Roses Brings Dawn |
| Vietnamese | Bình Minh Của Ngàn Đóa Hồng | The Dawn of A Thousand Roses |
| German | Des Morgens tausend Rosen erwachen | The Morn a Thousand Roses Awaken |
| Indonesian | Fajar Seribu Mawar | The Dawn of a Thousand Roses |
| Portuguese | O Alvorecer das Rosas | The Dawn of the Roses |
| Turkish | Binbir Gül Şafağı | Dawn of a Thousand and One Roses |
| Italian | L'alba dalle mille rose | The Dawn of a Thousand Roses |
- ↑ Russian: Matches with Osip Borisovich Rumer's Russian translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat.
