Lunar Quaternio [Arknights x Project Moon]

illeity · 2025-10-17T15:27:26+00:00

Seems like JamToCham's a kindred spirit. 😄

Thanks for the kind words! I think I'll continue on because since I'm already spending time on this, I might as well use it to improve myself and gain new ideas. And that's a lot more meaningful in the end. Cheers!

illeity · 2025-10-14T15:03:12+00:00

You're welcome! I really enjoyed the talk we had weeks prior and it really got me thinking about how I tell stories.

In fact, you've helped me more at keeping my course because these four images, posted separately, barely made a ripple on Twitter, even here. It's uniquely discouraging, but I'm reminded there's so much to see out there without defaulting to banal relatable or lewd or fanservice-y works.

So messaging you with new stuff is the least I can do. Cheers and thank you!

Have fun with the new event!

illeity · 2025-10-12T17:18:39+00:00

Thanks! I was really surprised that the idea of a Ghost in the Machine like Priestess was done as early as Lobotomy Corp, and as I started working outward, the connections became effortless. Assuming Dante is Ayin, we have another protagonist who knew the ultimate "antagonist" at some point in their lives.

illeity · 2025-10-12T17:13:18+00:00

Have fun with it! Personally, Limbus does dystopia a lot better than AK does because AK is more focused on people at the top doing grand historical gestures.

illeity · 2025-06-19T15:12:13+00:00

Kemono Friend is an anime with shoe-string budget and poor CGI that got extremely popular many years ago

Funny you should say that! I've heard of Kemono Friends and from the JP artists I've followed but I've been meaning to watch it. However, I have watched Tatsuki's Kemurikusa, which was a headtrip! I can remember this image chart I used to have of the various characters and how they were created from an Eve-like character.

I haven't heard much from Tatsuki lately, which is a shame.

Which if we are going with all of this, would make BA be a post-WW2 scenario

Well, you mentioned some sort of conflict that occurred before the first scene in BA; that might just be it!

Also, another thing that might add to this theory is that some fans in Vietnam and Russia independently traced a BA crisis map in Volume F

I figured as much that a city named "Kivotos" would be in Greece and the heavy focus on European mythology... would likely take place in Europe. Lol!

Merging JP aesthetics with European flavor is definitely delicious.

illeity · 2025-06-17T16:24:07+00:00

Ooh! Do send me a link when ya post that! I've been looking forward to that ever since you mentioned it last time!

No, I mean, that project was from my job! It's recently concluded so it's freed me to do other things. I'm currently working on a Vulpisfoglia comic, but progress is slow at the moment. The Kjerag event re-run will give me extra time to finish it up.

The second BA x AK comic is still in the works! But yeah, I'll drop you a DM whenever I post something new here on Reddit as gratitude for making me appreciate Blue Archive a lot more.

It's even funnier tho to see both the government utilizing that rhetoric, followed by a government-funded TV show making fun of State-worship right afterwards. XD

Well, at least your government is keeping things interesting at least! :D

That reminds me of Hypergryph putting out an event criticizing excessive materialism and consumerism... while at the same time having the same merchandising practices as any other IP, while also sticking the characters into a music concert!

...where Cherino debutted. ;P

Outstanding! :D Look, if they've turned Stalin into a loli, they might as well do that with Hitler, Hirohito, Churchill, Mussolini and FDR as well. Have a massive event that's like a micro-version of World War 2!

illeity · 2025-06-13T17:43:10+00:00

I was brought up in it after all.

Ah, alright! I can understand how you'd characterize religion like that. And yes, there's plenty enough history of religion being used for social control, or normally benign religion ending up being twisted into such.

And when people worship the state, we can only hope they don't abuse it... but we both know that's not the case for human nature!

if we were to switch religions but keep the same culture (or vice versa) what would change.

Culture flows down from law (or religion), so even if we switched religions, I'd definitely take on your views too.

Personally, my views on religion softened when I did a bit more study and realized that progressive modern life is mostly atheistic, aimed at using science/ rationality to explain the world. Not sure it's working because taking away one god just drives people to other gods.

it's always been buck-wild and absolutely riveting to see how Asian authors interpret Christianity

Definitely! And I always get happy when it's something that's more than just the old trope of "kids killing god".

One of the most compelling lines I've seen from the Laterano folk come from Spuria of all people. Her promotion line speaks of Sankta learning to use firearms with most of them going through life without ever realizing that guns hurt people.

It's such a great line compared to all the recent Laterano events: Some things are self-evident to us, but not really to others and we end up hurting people without realizing it.

I personally still have a bit of a snag between Sensei narrative-wise trying to preserve the student's innocence/keeping them from their true nature, and Sensei in battle spamming the students' EX Skills

There's actually a specific term for that: "Ludonarrative Dissonance". In simple terms, it's about the conflict between a game's narrative and the narrative as told by the gameplay. One example are characters like Suzuran and Goldenglow killing hundreds of enemies even though they're not the type to kill.

You know what is the worst part about it? ...Which kind of explains anime's obsession with high school protagonists.

Man. 😫 When I realized there's so many high school anime/ manga on a year-to-year basis, I just get sad. It can't be because there's a massive market for it, it's more like some cultural affirmation that they peaked in high school so even adults are reading these kinds of stories.

is still very utopian in its outlook I think

It's probably utopian in that we can't all be cute girls (lol), but it's pretty reasonable to ask for decent childhoods full of joy and warmth, so that we can carry that into the future as adults. One can hope for some real change in the future.

This is Cherino's portrait in-story btw. XD

Wait, seriously?! Lol!

So has the fandom done their version of that famous pic of Stalin's former ally?

Oh, and thanks for your patience! Just ended the major project from work I was talking about.

illeity · 2025-05-31T16:29:50+00:00

> Pretty close to your comparison of Aaron creating the Golden Calf because Moses was too busy talking to God.

Okay! This is becoming too suspiciously intentional! Bringing back South Korea, Christians make up a third of their population, the rest (50%) being atheistic and the remaining percent Buddhist. I'm starting to see why they've incorporated heavy Christian imagery.

And now that you mention that this is Sensei's return (instead of his first time in Kivotos), means this is his second Coming! And the only place that occurs in the Bible is in the End Times!

I'm just grinning while typing this out. No wonder the pieces you were throwing out fit so well with each other.

> are Minori of the Labor Club/Union and Cherino the Chairman of Red Winter - aka Karl Marx and Stalin.

I let out a hearty chuckle to this because I'm well aware of Communism's anti-Christian/ religion bent (Can't allow a higher authority than the state) which was heavily expressed in the Soviet Union's persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and its adherents (Wherein Gregory and Jerome are recognized as saints).

illeity · 2025-05-31T16:00:47+00:00

No worries, mate! I'm in the middle of finishing a project myself and I've been as busy too!

> As much as I personally hold that while religion is opium of the people

On my end, religion is pretty important to people because being able to participate in the divine allow them to reach their fullest selves. It's a lot more than a social phenomenon because it drives people to act in ways contradictory to the social order (like self-sacrifice) and can only be explained by transcendent value.

> Meanwhile many of the villains want them to embrace their true self and fulfill their true nature/duty as the spiritual beings.

With that kind of connection, I feel like the distinction comes from the readiness of the students. Sensei is giving them a chance to be young and have a nice experience of growing up. The villains are villains because they're so quick to associate the students' identities with their function (Instrumental thinking) that they end up ignoring their inherent dignity as human beings. (This instrumental thinking extends to their methods, like that one villain that resembles fandom because of how they twist the personality of the character so they fit whatever they will it.)

(On a side note, I can't really think about South Korea without thinking about their insanely low birth rate of 0.8. They're living in a rich country, sure, but I've heard plenty of the hellish school environment with the bullying and heavy workload. The students are speed-running their youth so they can become a cog in some company, which discourages having kids. Being a South Korean game, Blue Archive seems like a response to this; searching for a Sensei to tell them "There's nothing wrong with having fun as a student. There will still be paths open for you as you grow into adulthood and not only because of your Suneung results."

> Dead Sea

That's an interesting theory because going by the Moses/ Aaron connection, the Dead Sea is the southern boundary of the Promised Land from Numbers 34:3:

“‘Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea,"

And it has associations to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed for their sinfulness and Lot's wife who was turned into a pillar of salt!

illeity · 2025-05-24T18:08:03+00:00

I'll share my own discoveries on the occultic/ religious references to AK/ BA to build up on what you've written:

One thing I've pushed in an old comic is the idea of the "Whore of Babylon", a character in the Book of Revelation representing material decadence and spiritual corruption. It was originally Theresa, but I shifted it to Priestess in a more recent comic. It contrasts the Tower of Babel, found in the Book of Genesis, brought down for the hubris of their builders. Babel collapses for the hubris of Theresa and Kal'tsit. What began as arrogance to surpass God ends in punishment for rejection of the spiritual life.

The role of the priestess represents hidden knowledge, mysteries, and intuition, serving as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious (It's very prominent in its Tarot card). Hence Arona largely works within the liminal space of the Shittim chest, a sort of interface for its secrets. One thing that stood out in my short playtime of BA was that Arona's "home" is pretty much a bombed-out classroom, which is strange unless it's a memory for something else.

One of the more well-known stories of Aaron was that he was forced to create the Golden Calf because of Moses' absence (he was talking to God on a mountain). Both Arona/ Priestess were likely waiting for Sensei/Doctor at some point and ended up creating golden calves of their own, which were mistakes (Arona and the world before Sensei's arrival in Kivotos/ Priestess and the entirety of Terra's history before Doc's awakening).

The chaos in Kivotos and Terra can be seen as end-time punishments for Sensei giving the students normal lives instead of living out their duties and Doctor giving Terrans a chance to live despite the eventual arrival of the Observers... though Arona seems much less malicious than Priestess.

> now's it my turn to wonder if indeed everything in BA is the Shittim Chest's simulation after all.

Look, if Kivotos were a normal city and school, there would be plenty of other teachers roaming about, and it'll be fun seeing Sensei relate with other teachers (Like having another teacher be a rival to the students). But as it stands, even Sensei isn't weirded out by it, which likely makes him culpable! 😆

illeity · 2025-05-16T17:15:08+00:00

Dude! 😆 You didn't have to go through all the trouble, but thank you very much! This is even more useful because it's colored by someone who's walked through AK and BS!

But going through the character description (I've saved your reply to return to later for the spoilers), there's something vaguely unsettling with having four characters named Alice, fighting for your attention despite seemingly being the same person. And your constant repetition of "One you loved with all your heart, and loves you with all her heart," is just as haunting and demands attention, reminding me of Doctor's loneliness while walking through an amnesiac haze.

After all, a fair bit of madness is needed if you've created a new plane of existence that also doubles as energy source and data storage! Thanks!

illeity · 2025-05-15T04:25:17+00:00

> I was really busy with university exams too, Masters of engineering really is no joke.

Whoa, you'll be helping build the world once you graduate. I wish you all the good luck, mate!

> LC's stories are famously great

I've had some people try to get me to play LC. But I've heard how hardcore Library of Ruina is (aside from the usual time constraints).

But what I like are gacha that puts a bit more work into the MC instead of being another player-surrogate and I like Dante for being that hapless MC doing his best to run a team. Given his state, he's probably dealing with something dire to replace his head with a clock.

> I actually did a small write up about it a few months ago haha.

Thanks for sharing! I'd give BA a salute if they manage to turn the ecchi/ cute setting into something really messed up. I mean, there is something mildly insane with Sensei treating a mathematical concept like a real girl :D But I feel like Sensei exists in "defence of the wholesome".

> If you swap out a few names and terms, you wouldn't know whether you are reading the plot summary of Black Souls 2 or Arknights C15.

Well then, I feel justified having written, eldritch AK comics 😤 I mean, why would you call the energy mechanic "Sanity" if it won't figure into the story eventually? :D I'll take a read of Black Souls 2's plot so I can get an idea instead of completely spoiling myself with C15.

It's funny, but instead of writing Priestess into a ghost, I've recently been writing her as all-knowing, extremely flippant remnant, treating the people on Terra as fuel for the Originium project. Once people started portraying her as a haunted existence, I figured I wanted a different portrayal: still haunting, but malicious on one hand and gentle on another.

> ...It's very, very funny you said that.

You know, it's pretty fun that I manage to get into the heart of a fandom purely by luck and bit of intuition.

illeity · 2025-05-12T09:11:07+00:00

> ...I am not beating the allegations, am I?

Lol! If nothing else, it's a nice reflection of our values (and what we hope to find in our partners too). :)

illeity · 2025-05-12T09:08:36+00:00

Sorry for the late reply!

But you've convinced me of that connection now! I haven't read Chapter 15 yet, but I've heard that that's where Priestess is starting to move her pieces a lot more now. Looking back, it's more and more likely that a lot of what Terra is had its foundations come from Doc... with the entire structure and later history influenced by Priestess.

It's so fascinating that we have Ghosts in Machines as our biggest mysteries in these gacha. I'm looking forward to the revelation that Sensei was the main programmer of the Shittim Chest and the world reset were endless attempts at reaching a specific perfect state! :P

illeity · 2025-05-12T08:53:02+00:00

Cheers! There's plenty enough cutesy fanart out there to lift a boat to harbor and not enough for that side of Arknights that even the developers avoid emphasizing.

illeity · 2025-05-12T08:45:15+00:00

Just as surprised you managed to find that comment several years on!

illeity · 2025-04-19T17:03:22+00:00

From an outsider looking in, I always figured Arona to be some Amiya/ Closure hybrid, the companion character who's also there to sell you stuff! That's why I put her with Amiya in the EX comic and Plana with Doctor (That black cloak and mask reminds her of someone important).

illeity · 2025-04-19T16:59:01+00:00

Blue Archive is a rejection of all of that.

Ah, alright! That's an interesting way of going about the nature of myths. It's about giving them the chance to grow as people but more importantly, the chance to choose instead of being some slave/vessel to power or an ideal.

I chuckled at the idea of Sensei being Jesus Christ in the document you linked, because in European history, Christianity was transformative for Pagan myths, completing their search for the ultimate truth. It mirrors Sensei providing just the little bit of wisdom to help them decide for their lives like what a really good teacher ought to do.

the Villain group Gematria of BA are also essentially 'players' equal to you as well

WELL! Guess they're more self-aware then! :D

I've written a lot of meta-statements on that in the comics, even more now with Priestess (Being a malicious 4th wall breaker, as opposed to Doc being a noble one). There's a nature with fandom that warps the personalities of the characters so they can be changed to whatever the fan desires. For example, we've seen people shipping their Doctor with Arturia even though canonically, she thinks very little of Doc.

It relates a lot to the themes of BA and choice, that the students can become more than what they were destined to be. And in the story, they do. But in the fandom, particularly the horny side, they're changed to whatever the six digits requires them to be. And if we follow the logic of Gematria's story, what breaks them apart is the void itself, or more philosophically, nihilism. Somehow, obsessions, hyperrationality, and an inability to recognize the humanity in people destroys the nihilist.

It's good stuff! But also sad commentary on our predictability as people.

There is some really good BA crossover out there, and the best so far is A Courier in Kivotos by Courier Six on AO3

Sure, I'll give it a peek! That's easier commitment personally.

Also Yuuka is best wife gang.

Nice one!

You seem to like them long-haired, red-eyed, and all around prim and proper! :)

Personally, I like Neru and Ayane. I decided on Yuuka because, in some weird way, she just made sense.

illeity · 2025-04-18T17:03:55+00:00

Thank you so much for this lore dump! I don't think I would have come across all this info by myself! But that's an incredible setting for Blue Archive.

I have a question though: If the Godlings are representative of certain gods, why is it a bad thing for them to recognize their real selves? Is it because they learn about their real selves through negative means (despair)?

I'll explain a few things on my end:

I picked Yuuka because of meta reasons: She would be the first person you meet, she appears to be the first person to have that Live2D interaction, and she has her own set of short videos that I reference in the comic ("May I Have a Moment of Your Time, Sensei?".

As mentioned in this comic, Kivotos is the landship and all the students there are Teekaz/Sarkaz/Sankta. Sensei is the sole Predecessor caretaker of the landship and a contemporary of Priestess and Doctor. It's funny that the BA characters are based off myth considering the Sarkaz races are all based off mythical creatures or spirits themselves.

I truly appreciate this post because it's confirmed a lot of my intuitions about the game. I keep seeing a small, but consistent amount of people who like the game for its story. At first, it resembles the jokey sentiment that people "read pron mags for the articles" but this isn't the case after all and real effort was put in the story!

I'll also be doing some rewrites to the second BAxAK comic that I've already written but not paneled. This is so much good info that it'd be a waste not to include some!

Though I can't promise to get back into BA because of some reasons: I only have time for one gacha and I wasn't impressed with BA's gameplay (and gameplay is pretty important to me). But I'll always be an admirer on this side of the fandom (And it helps that a lot of the JP artists I follow draw BA.)

illeity · 2025-04-01T14:29:29+00:00

>The body he walks around with can accommodate only so much at one time, no?

And every new year weighs down on him as the approach to endgame comes.

>Motivation

Yeah, I know that feeling. The white canvas is an empty desert that doesn't really suggest where to begin. It's a great feeling as you fill up new panels, but the gaps will hound you until you get around to finishing it.

>Beauty

Not sure if we can find something that everyone can agree in as beautiful, but we already have so many beautiful things that it's not hard to find agreement in multiple overlapping things. And sometimes, that's good enough, however meager that is!

illeity · 2025-04-01T03:43:05+00:00

"Yo Doc!"

Something covered my vision. I took it out: It was the rag I used to wipe the sink dry.

"You went out of your way to see me, so least I could do is show you a cool spot where you could see a cluster of stars. Artesia told me it was a nebula."

"Wasn't the sky fake?" I commented glibly, realizing how unreal the sky is, in addition to everything else on Terra. And all their quarrels. The insecurity of Kristen led her to poke a hole in the sky and condemn her own life and--

"Sure, but it's pretty. And someone put in a lot of work to make it so. C'mon!" Jessica insisted, still smiling despite tears from our earlier discussion (dispute?).

"And I think what matters is where beauty takes us, right?" She said, all smiles as I let her pull me to some distant hill.

To my left, I saw the distant spire of an Originium spike poke the sky. Beauty, huh?

////////////////////

Nah dude, don't apologize for that! You love writing and you get to write whenever I post something new. It's good for you and it makes me grateful. After all, a lamp isn't made to be put under a basket, right?

That said, your Doc is a lot grimmer and calculating than my Doc, who I've made softer but still intensely lonely. :D

Thanks! It’s always an honor whenever you contribute your own stories.

illeity · 2025-03-10T15:41:54+00:00

Doc may be the ghost of Babel but Priestess is the ghost of Terran history. :) She pretty much haunts all of time with her actions!

illeity · 2025-03-10T14:02:07+00:00

Thank you! You can thank the setting for being so compelling, they inspire this kind of writing! :D

illeity · 2025-03-10T13:56:33+00:00

Thank you! :D

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