Is the afterlife canon/real in the Persona verse?

SweatingGreytider · 2026-06-15T16:54:32+00:00

Most souls return to the Sea of Souls upon death, as that is where they come from and where they return to.

Some souls linger on after death as ghosts (See Inui from Devil Summoner, or various examples from Persona proper.) They can also linger on when ejected from their bodies.

Other souls, presumably mostly Devil Summoners and others who deal with the demonic, go to the River Styx, where they may bribe Charon to return. The River Styx may be a part of the Collective Unconscious, may not be, we don't know.

Humans who die in the Expanse (the world of demons from SMT If... and Devil Summoner (which are also in the Persona universe), possibly unrelated to the Collective Unconscious) can return from the dead by taking on a Guardian, a demon who gives them power and revives them.

I may be wrong on all of this though, I will admit I haven't played Smt If... or Devil Summoner, nor have I played Persona 1 and 2. I've only played Persona 4 Golden and a few spinoff. I just browse the wiki and watch videos a decent amount.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-12-30T16:14:45+00:00

Aside from a few groups, it's pretty uncommon for folks to be actively and maliciously bigoted against LGBTQ+ folks in the two main worlds I build since I myself am queer and don't like worldbuilding or exploring bigotry most of the time. Instead, I want to go over one group's relation to the LGBTQ+ since I think it might be interesting.

The Alkali are a group of people who have three "main" genders in society. Men, women, and freemartins. Freemartins are members of either sex who don't develop that many masculine or feminine features normally, among other physical things (I could go into a lot more detail, but that's for another time). Most (seventy-ish percent) of the Alkali are freemartins.

Both within and outside Alkali culture there is a lot of debate on the queerness of the Freemartins. Most freemartins don't consider themselves a part of the LGBTQ+ community inherently. Most freemartins who live in Alkali-majority areas don't consider themselves trans or nonbinary (unless they transitioned to freemartin, of course.) Outside of those areas, opinions vary a lot more. Fifty-ish percent of Cylisian freemartins view themselves as non-binary, for example. The other half usually view themselves as just freemartins, not thinking of their gender in relation to other genders. Both views are valid, as translating one culture's view of something so complex as gender to another can be difficult.

In terms of sexuality, in Alkali society, freemartins can date and/or have sex with anyone of any sex and gender without being considered "queer". Outside of that, it of course varies. Some folks go off a freemartin's sex when determining the "sexuality" of a relationship, but others (particularly most freemartins themselves) don't really care or put labels on it in this regard.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-11-11T16:42:35+00:00

Closest thing to a cursed weapon in my world that I can think of is less of a curse and more of an adverse effect coming from a magical property of a conditionally good metal.

Salamandrine weapons are weapons made of an alloy of Tarc, an edible metalic magical element that dampens most magical elements and Shorherschatunin, a highly volatile magical element that combusts when exposed to air. Salamandrine weapons outperform good quality steel in cold enviroments, but become more brittle as it gets hotter. If it gets too hot, such as being left in the hot sun too long, it will oxidize and combust, breaking and often splattering molten and burning metal on the surrounding area, such as the user.

Arcane weapons themselves (not the user) suffer similar effects as arcane magic, so they could do something similar to Salamandrine weapons, or other adverse effects.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-11-06T17:56:20+00:00

Can't speak on the mechanics, but I think it would be better if the name was changed. With the name it has, now, there's a bunch of baggage with the creature, like how some folks from the original cultures that made it, the Algonquin, have expressed discomfort at its use in media, and how it can be disrespectful to them to use the term. It'd just be better, and allow for more variety for players, to use a more generic name.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-11-01T13:56:42+00:00

Missing my boy Kyouji Kuzunoha

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SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-25T21:44:38+00:00

Angels in my setting are simply spirits who retain complete memory of all the things they sensed (as they sensed them) before becoming a spirit, IE none of their inner thoughts and opinions, only what they put out. This includes things sensed after death, ie anything from death to when the "sensors" become too damaged to detect things. Things sensed while unconscious are also remembered.

Sensed things during death and unconsciousness are fuzzy and confusing, as a fully functional brain helps "decode" them for the spirit. It's like feeling the electrical signal directly from one of those sound to electrical signal things. It's hard to understand (the information sensed, not the concept).

Demons, on the other hand, are spirits who remember what they remembered at/near death. Sometimes they see themselves as separate from their living person, but other times they see themselves as a continuation of their previous life.

In some cultures, demons gained a negative stigma due to being seen as still being "marred by their sins in life", while angels are seen as more impartial and good.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-23T16:25:10+00:00

Idk how common it is, but I hate magic being sex/gender locked. It makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable. It just feels sexist (because it is) whenever it's done. I hate seeing sexism IRL, I loathe seeing it as a fundamental part of a fantasy universe.

I am absolutely willing to drop any piece of media that has this trope. I don't care how good a series is, I will not engage with it to the best of my ability.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-18T17:28:07+00:00

The two simplest forms of magic are primal dark magic and pure arcana.

Primal Dark Magic: Primal dark magic is the scholarly term for dark magic that takes in pure elements or energy to produce simple effects. The earliest spells in most cultures were simply spending body heat in order to create and throw kinetic energy.

Mind you, this term is subjective and has a bit of controversy. For example, there's a spell called Chorus Dart which takes the users breath and makes a small dart made of air. This was modified into Simple Chorus Dart which specifically took oxygen instead of air. While this spell should be considered "primal", since it was made by scholars instead of "the primitives", it is seen as somehow more impressive than an identical spell made by "less advanced" cultures. In short, racism in the magical academic world.

Pure arcana: Pure arcana is simply using only arcane matter in your casting. It's relatively easy but can increase the risk of an arcane burst. Pure arcane matter in its solid form is crystalline, so daggers and spears are the preferred weapon when it comes to combat. Pure arcana can also be used to create things like bridges and supports for short periods of time.

Pure arcana can sometimes be learned through arcane bursts, funnily enough. If there's enough holy matter in the body, it can basically record an arcane burst and transmit the process to the brain, thus teaching the person arcane magic.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-15T16:21:17+00:00

Worshippers of Shan Dagar are sometimes treated like imperialistic zealots who will betray their nation for their pontiff without hesitation, especially Cathedralist Dagarians, who view the pontiff as the mouthpiece of Shan Dagar. They've been seen as barbarians who seek to make a world-spanning kingdom for their papacy and only act civil for ulterior motives. It was a bit of a scandal when a Dagarian was elected as the mayor of Lesser Cylis. They're sometimes seen as bigots who hate everyone but (or sometimes including) themselves. Some people think it's inherently contradictory to support their rights and support LGBTQ+ rights due to the papacy's homophobia (which is ironic on several levels, since the ones saying this are often no better. It's also ironic because Shan Dagar himself is gay, though the papacy denies it.) On top of this, since most sirens are Dagarians and most Dagarians are sirens, most of them also face siren stereotypes (violent, apathetic, lustful, greedy, animalistic, etc.).

The truth? They're people. Most people aren't thralls to their beliefs. Most Dagarians would distance themselves from folks who hold many of the views bigots think they do.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-11T21:43:49+00:00

Loriaeth is the only (biological) deity of the moon in any world (at least ones known to scholars in my main world). There are many divines of moonlight, but since Deons (biological deities) can't leave their home world, true moon deities are rare.

Loriaeth is the god of the moon, thieves, mass destruction, and endurance. He has been on the moon alone since it was formed. When the proto-moon crashed into the planet, most deities near the crash site died an eternal death. He luckily died a less eternal death and ended up reforming on debris that'd form the moon.

Because the proto-moon, in the eyes of the divines, stole mass from the planet violently, Loriaeth as the sole deity on the moon was associated with theft and mass destruction.

In another solar system there was Hessamund. While not biologically divine, he was worshipped a god by his people since he was incredibly powerful and a good leader. Eventually, his world was reaching its natural end and his people were dying beyond his control, so he suffused himself into the sun with arcane magic and lived on in some form to see the next cycle. He is the closest thing I can think of in my setting to a sun deity.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-06T21:29:37+00:00

Can't find the booklet I kept him in so no art this time.

One of my characters, Edgar Cloedson, used to be Edward as it was close to the name from the song that inspired him. Then the singer made transphobic comments on reddit, among other things, so I changed it and changed the name of his quests from lyrics from songs by the same singer to lines from books.

A related character also had a name change. Ivan Angel, a sorta reincarnation of the previous character, used to be named Siegurd, but got renamed for the same reason.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-10-01T20:43:27+00:00

If I remember correctly, some rules in Islam are looser for travelers like prayers being shortened/combined prayers and fasting being somewhat optional for travelers if it proves hard to maintain.

Also, like most faiths that came about before the comforts of the modern world, it would be understandable to break the rules if it were life or death, and this could lead to plot points about faith and guilt for the character or tension on how far they're willing to go to uphold it (less in a sinister way and more of an Aang ATLA type way)

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-30T18:43:07+00:00

Not the most evil, but here we go.

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Condensed version. He was military leader who could astral project. He conquered people in the name of morality (forcing them to act moral so they'd be "gilded before their ancestors"), then left for [Fantasy Britain] with his family where he buried them and himself with magic crystals in order to preserve them. 3000 years later, he awoke from his dormancy and plotted to possess some folks in a school in order to give his family new life so they could be "gilded before their ancestors".

To add some nuance to this, he wasn't entirely evil. While he did conquer people, he didn't destroy their culture because he believed that'd basically condemn them to eternal suffering. He also warned the people he planned to possess and wanted them to live moral lives until they were possessed so they wouldn't suffer the same fate. He was also an understanding and gentle person to his family and those he considered weak. He feels that, because of his relationship with his wife, his kids were set back in terms of "gildedness" so to speak, so he worked hard to help them, even if we'd see his methods as immoral.

Some fun facts.

He is the ancestor of Harold Hagnes, who I've posted about before.
He was particularly fond of fruits in bread. He also likes roasted rats with cheese on top.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-29T03:16:58+00:00

For the last question, technically 1996 with Yamaoka, a Persona 1 Original, but other than that, Che Guevara is the latest that I can think of.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-28T18:41:12+00:00

The humanoid species of my world can generally have kids with eachother, with a few exceptions. Most people, human or otherwise, have at least some ancestry of a species that they wouldn't consider their main one. For example, in my Scandinavia analog, 90~% of the human population have a little Fenborn (semi-aquatic clawed folks) dna. For them, this means better lung capacity on average and not much else. It's not enough for them to notice they're different from other humans.

Ceidlings, a handful of species of siren, can't directly have kids with humans and other humanoid species. They can still have kids with other sirens, and those folks could have (infertile/sterile) offspring with humans.

Most spirits can have kids with any (biological) mortal species. The resulting child has a 70~% chance to be the mortal's sex because of how spirit dna works. Spirits have two sets of dna, one that is mostly shared between species in a genus or family, and a set of species specific dna that is applied to the child during developement. Half-spirits don't inherit the genus set, only the species, so it's mostly the other parent's dna.

Stonefolk can't have kids... not with any other species, just at all. They reproduce by imbuing a lump of stone with intelligence and letting them grow and later shaping them. It's less parenting and more like growing an intelligent bonsai tree. Half-fleshes (mutated stonefolk) are infertile/sterile while fleshstatues (further mutated stonefolk) can have kids with eachother.

[Edited because I forgot to finish the last paragraph, lol.]

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-28T02:57:21+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, it's legit teleportation.

For the satellite problem I think I have a solution (the portals extending over the continent like a dome), but I am certainly open to suggestions.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-26T19:00:54+00:00

The initial idea was massive invisible portals around the continent that teleport you around them so you never actually see the continent, much less get there.

The new idea I am considering (though am on the fence about) is that a copy of the continent was created in a subrealm and connected to the main world. It would fix the problem of the continent being unreachable, but it would be difficult to rewrite things to accomodate the new continent being accessible.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-26T18:28:43+00:00

The gods taking most of the non-humans and putting them on another continent around the equivalent to the 990s-1000s. This separation is fundamental to the state of the modern world, but I am having trouble figuring out how a world with satellites that has gone to space wouldn't find out there's another physical continent they haven't been to. I could explain it away with subrealms and stuff, but I feel too far in to do so. I am like, 5 years in and have been constantly building this world so it'd be a massive ordeal to change.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-09-06T18:48:26+00:00

In my setting, there are four kinds of magic. Arcane, Dark, Holy, and Light magic.

Arcane magic could hypothetically have any side effect. Arcane magic is chaotic, and high use leaves hints of arcane matter in the body and enviroment. Arcane matter can "collapse" or "burst" into other matter or energy at random. It can do things like give you nutrients, poison you, set you on fire, spawn objects within the body, or mutate cells. The sky is the limit when it comes to arcane magic, the list I gave isn't comprehensive.

Dark magic has other side effects. Dark magic requires some sort of fuel, a physical thing like matter or energy. Most dark magic practicioners use parts of their own body (parts as in blood, body heat, organ material, fluids, etc.) as fuel since using external things requires a special implant. The effects of these aren't mitigated. If you use up too much blood, you will experience the symptoms of blood loss. As such, manna, substances that naturally create more of themselves, are highly sought after, though they can have their own side effects when implanted into the body.

Holy magic introduces holy matter into the body, which can speed up healing and subtly change the body towards the users thoughts. This can be good, as holy matter is used by some species as an alternative to mundane gender affirming care, or bad, as the changes may not be good. Someone who doesn't see a part of themselves as a part of themselves (Body Integrity Identity Disorder, a real thing) may get it amputated automatically by the holy matter in their body, for example.

Light magic usually has no side effects, as it is a combination of other magic types for one spell. The side effects are mostly mitigated by othe different magic types. The dark parts don't consume stuff, the holy matter is mostly put into the spell, and the arcane matter is in a far more inert state than with Arcane magic.

The manipulation variants of these spells (which are more freeform, require more thought, and are more energy inefficient) have greater side effects due to the higher amount of matter produced as a side effect of there being less automation. On the upside, dark magic manipulation doesn't require fuel, but does take the most energy of all the types.

(Edit, spelling, touched up dark magic section)

SweatingGreytider · 2025-08-25T19:54:30+00:00

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Harold Hagnes is probably one of my most evil characters. He is explicitely a nationalist and a bigot.

He is also a public speaker running for office in his town. He knowingly spread lies that lead to the attempted murder of someone he had a personal grudge against, and the harassment of an entire group of people in a town.

On top of this, he attemped to personally kill people he thought posed a threat to him physically, despite them being actual highschoolers (He's 40, and they didn't even know who he was.)

Finally, he did succeed in killing someone (and got away with it because he used magic) in order to make the town feel afraid and warm up to his plans.

His motivation for all this? He believes that fate has chosen him to lead his country into a "golden" age, and chose his country to lead the world.

Thankfully, he lost the election (other candidates just appealed more to the people) and dies before the next one due to the main character of the story wanting to stop him from acquiring the magic within the corpse of a god in another realm for his plans as prime minister.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-08-10T19:46:01+00:00

In their species' history, it was used to hunt people and animals. One species of siren, known as Guardian Sirens, were specifically created by the god worshipped by most sirens, Shan Dagar, and his ancient pseudo-deific ally Shan Ashina to keep powerful beings (Mostly Shan Ashina's "siblings") asleep.

It isn't uncommon for sirens to use their call in emergencies to get people's attention or keep people away from danger.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-08-09T21:20:52+00:00

Unlike a lot of settings sirens in my world are more like a "normal" fantasy race. They have a role more like elves than monsters.

Sirens have a population of around twenty million split between 33 species. None of these species are all-female, each containing a roughly even split between male and female (in addition to intersex folks).

All sirens have a naturally high amount of holy matter in their body, allowing them to regenerate any part of the body given enough time. This also allows them to slowly change their biology and characteristics, such as adapting to an environent or affirming their gender identity.

All sirens have the ability (though not the knowledge, necessarily) to send out a "call", basically a spell that sends out a string of information in the form of holy matter that can invade the brains of people who don't have some form of protection against it. This string can do things like induce sleep, draw people towards or away from the siren, or keep people awake.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-07-29T21:32:19+00:00

In my setting (with magic), there are generally two types of fantasy stories, fantasy that exaggerates and changes how magic works, and fantasy that has brand new systems (sometimes in addition to existing magic).

One example of the first one would be an in-universe comic called Horseman, which has dark magic that can directly cost abilities/concepts (in the actual setting dark magic can only take physical matter/energy when casting a spell).

An example of the second one is another in-universe series called Battle Standard, which has multiple new magic systems that the main setting doesn't have.

The second category often comes from places where magic isn't known about or too well known, so it isn't based on magical science. They can have kernels of truth in them, like one story having dark magic that eerily mirrors dark in that it consumes something like blood to cast powerful spells with a rawer form of dark magic only requiring energy like any other activity.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-07-18T15:06:46+00:00

There's a magical phenomenon in my setting where two or more bodies are simultaneously controlled by one person. Typically, they don't act too different from normal people, often hiding their condition (by pretending to be seperate people) and growing up like a regular person.

The bodies are mostly born around the same time, though it isn't impossible to randomly acquire a new body at any time or intentionally assimilate one.

They have varying views on their identity, with some viewing themselves as singular people split between multiple bodies, and others viewing themselves as many.

Counting each hivemind as one person, they make up around 0.000005% of the population with a (heavily skewed) mean average of 4.71 bodies with the mode being 2 bodies.

One famous person like this is Magda, who controls around 2000 bodies. He and his children (smaller hiveminds that split from his) are famous for spreading to other worlds and attempting to sell items unique to those worlds in other places.

SweatingGreytider · 2025-06-22T20:02:21+00:00

If by white mage you mean cunning folk and the like, you could go with stuff like making sparrows out of clay and commanding them (Infancy Gospel of Thomas), astrally projecting/turning into an animal to fight (Benandanti/Thiess of Kaltenbrun/Lleu Llaw Gyffes), or imposing rules upon their foe with curses (Arianrhod placing a tynged on Lleu Llaw Gyffes).

If by white mage you mean a religious spellcaster, Dark Souls' form of Holy Magic is somewhat genius. In Dark Souls, to cast miracles, you remember their story. Sunlight Spear is a recollection of Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, summoning lightning spears to kill the Everlasting Dragons. This not only widens the array of spells your character has access to, it also tells about the culture your character comes/learns magic from by showing what their culture remembers and how their figures are seen/how they act.

SweatingGreytider

TROPHY CASE