#dragalia lost theory

[valeriefauxnom]

A Collection of Minor Dragalia Theories

1: Some inspiration for Wyrmscale was drawn from tuberculosis.

Wyrmscale frustratingly was talked in minimal frequency for something that has supposedly haunted the royal family to a known degree. What little we do have on it says or suggests this:

-It produces exceedingly durable dragon scales over the afflicted's body

-It is invariably fatal (provided one not get possessed by a literal creator deity)

-It is only known to occur in the royal family's blood (though it is unknown whether it truly is family-exclusive or if any of the exceedingly few dragonblood lines that may have survived could also pick it up). Overall uncommon but it's popped up enough to be a known phenomenon.

-It seems to produce internal damage to organs, based on Phares' comments:

-By implication, it's not infectious, as there is 0.000 isolation or hesitation between Phares and any other sibling when it comes to interacting.

-A common sentiment of wyrmscale is that it's just 'trying to turn you into a dragon' but fails in the face of the weak human body.

-This isn't immediately connected to it but I figured I'd throw in the fun fact that in Japanese, it seems to be more literally called 'dragon scale - itis'

But how does this connect to tuberculosis?

I'll start with a more casual link that I still find interesting: Tuberculosis, among its names, has been known as 'the White Death' - which to me instantly calls to mind Phares' ivory scales.

To actually start digging in the weeds, though, the disease is predominately one that affects the lungs. It's especially famous for producing the ~dramatic bloody cough~ we all see in media.

And lo and behold, as I just displayed above, Phares does indeed have it!

Now, wait, you might be saying, TB is infectious, having caused epidemics aplenty, and you're correct!

...However, there's also another wrinkle to this: most TB cases never 'bloom' into its full potential and instead just kinda quietly sit there.

As a matter of fact, in 2023 it was estimated that 1/4 the WORLD'S population 'had tuberculosis', either its active or latent form. Even if you focus on a country like the US, there's still 5-10% of people that have it.

So who knows if wyrmscale could be contagious? It might just have a particular quality to it that is only really able to take root in dragonblooded bodies, and even then, it could be that the rest of the fam caught the latent version since there's a high enough percentage of people who just never develop active TB.

Ignoring the infectious matter, there's more that I would like to bring up: the surrounding culture of TB.

'Culture' is a strange word when talking about a disease that for a long time was very deadly with no cure possible, but there was! Tuberculosis was a disease that was also called the 'romantic disease', and was at one point portrayed as a sort of 'cool' thing. It's the whole 'pale skin, delicate soul' vibe that caused this, though it also has been attributed towards supposedly making one smarter/more creative especially re. the arts.

Funnily enough, this whole thing was sort of a flip-flop from previous portrayals of it as a poverty disease. But that's not relevant.

The point I'm trying to make here is that TB for a while had an idea of it being this ~noble disease~. And while we don't exactly get Public Opinion 101 regarding most the royal family, they don't exactly seem to fear or otherwise have a negative opinion of him for his disease or otherwise, which, ya never know, may be partly informed by the idea that it's a 'cool noble one' instead (and even more literal than its real-life counterpart, as dragon scales are admittedly cool). People can get mean about uncontrollable things as it is, and for a family that's already held up as special because of their dragonblood, it would be easy to see how they could have pivoted to view wyrmscale as a 'mark of disfavor/poor character/etc' in another world.

Theory 2: Euden, in a somewhat vague way, could be considered a fiend.

Ah, Euden, and your complicated creation process. What are you? Human, a god, human god, demon, amalgamate of baby blood...etc etc?

However, I believe that you could argue that Euden's overall 'presentation' to the world in a broader sense is that of a fiend instead of 'just a human'. How so?

I'd like to take a small detour to canon, and this line in ye olde Dragalia lore when they were first trying to drip Da Lore on us:

So fiends in general were portrayed as generally drawn to it, created from it, bad stuff happens yadda yadda yadda. It also is very harmful to humans and dragons alike. See all the void dragons and everyone generally stress everyone has to get moving whenever it gets too thick.

You might already be looping around to the Euden-Morsayati thing, and you're absolutely right, but that's more the 'why' of 'why I think you could consider Euden to have the traits of a functional fiend'.

A bit less concise a theory title, but hey.

First, I'd like to pull out this moment from ch.5. Mym's feeling bad vibes, Ranzal and Elisanne, both very strong themselves are feeling very poorly... and Euden just never really seems to be bothered. He's just chilling.

Now, it's not like Euden is immune to mana shenanigans. He's just as easily knocked down a peg from things like Sophie's story, where mana being off makes everyone miserable for a little while.

But, generally, from what I can dig up... black mana doesn't really seem to get him complaining. In fact, we saw it as a plot point several times, between him just chilling in Lefkos' ruins and later in an area absolutely packed with black mana:

He's more upset about the fact he's going to be eaten by a black hole than any black mana (understandable). By all indications, even before Da Lore developed to say he's immune, Euden just didn't really care about it.

However, I'd like to suggest a particular moment in ch.13 as another 'hm' moment.

They address this more as 'artificial mana' but I'd like to point out that it's not 'just' artificial by implication - it's able to corrupt Poseidon into Void Poseidon, implying that it is at least somewhat tainted with black mana.

And here Euden immediately keys onto it, and in contrast to Ranzal's heeby-jeebies, instead wants to go to it. Or, maybe one could say, drawn to it in the same manner that fiends are? It could be a thing that he's tried to suppress since black mana has been drilled into his head as 'the thing to go away from as fast as humanly possible', and how weird is it that he wants to go to it instead of running away with his friends? Better to just resist the urge, he's not a bug that needs to go to the light, and his friends are struggling already, he's not going to insist they risk themselves more.

Jokingly, I could also suggest that this is the source of his unstoppable ability to just find danger (whether that's fiends finding him or him finding fiends)!

'Now wait', you might say, 'fiends are those weird hooded creatures or manticores and stuff, not humans, even if they can be sentient. Plus, since they're Bad Vibes manifested, all the mana sensors in the gang could Sense him'... but we do already know of at least one exception: Mei Hou Wang, who is perfectly humanoid in appearance. It takes Cleo making a dedicated effort to deduce that he's 'not human', and even then, she can't conclusively ID him as a fiend.

All he registers is 'weird', to say the least. Which, you guessed it, we've several that suggest Euden just 'feels weird' too, mana-wise. Granted, some suggestion for that is that his mom is haunting him, but whether it fully explains the weirdness several register regarding him is unknown.

As a final little thing for this theory, I will also throw in the pot that fiends and black mana seem to be 'frenzy-ing' in nature. Driving dragons and humans mad, becoming crazed themselves, yadda yadda... Heck, even Beren, who we know is a human constantly inundated with the stuff, seems somewhat impulsive and driven by any whims of his. This, to me, intersects with Finlorda's vague words of warning regarding Euden, that he feared Euden going berserk.

You could interpret this as though he feared that the Other's demon flesh would make him a 'true fiend' in behavior to match the material he was made from. In a broader sense, as I've long argued on here, Euden is... not fully stable, mentally. And while that part of him ultimately stems from the way he was raised and how he thinks of himself, if he's a 'fiend' in a technical sense I'm sure that doesn't help regulate him at all.

This combines into the vague picture that Euden, a person whose physical form is predominately made from Morsayati, a demon overlord/fiend, may possess more than just an immunity to black mana but an outright compulsion as the 'real things' do, and potentially shares their capacity/inclination to go berserk.

Theory 3: They(tm) were thinking about maiming Leonidas at least a bit post ch.12

'They' being the dev team and more specifically the writers.

Why do I think this?

It stems from the overall vibes I pick up from a mix of the story and art. Of course, there's no smoking gun to confirm anything, as is the case with the other little mini theories here, but hopefully you can see where I'm going with this!

It starts with the heavy stress that Leonidas was just wrecked by the end of ch.12. He's wounded enough that Euden immediately flips his mood from 'I need to beat you up' to 'I am concerned for your life' once Phares shows up.

The next piece to this puzzle comes in his later meeting with Chelle. She stresses how injured he was and how bad she was expecting him to be.

Gala Leonidas' lines, when combined with this, paint the broader narrative that Chelle personally ferried his gun to him in this visit.

In short: she understood that he was injured enough to render him more or less defenseless from his typical means of sword and shapeshift, and likely was intending to supplement her brother's capacity to defend himself in his infirmity.

Even for whenever Ilia shows up after, he's still wounded enough for a wide scope of them to be clearly visible to her, and he's overall maybe a bit less sharp than normal, getting surprised...

...And Ilia able to incapacitate both his guards before he so much blinks.

So, obviously, whatever injuries he had weren't just for show, and did affect him in the days and weeks after the fight even in canon, but Leonidas largely seems to convalesce more or less entirely.

Here's where we loop around to the why I think that wasn't originally the plan!

A big part stems from this draft artwork for him in the songbook, of all things...

Pardon the poor picture but between the scan and the texture on the image itself, it's... tough to find anything better. But from the start of them, there's a clear pattern of his right arm being... oddly emphasized, with his mismatched black sleeve until it got phased out for his B design.

I'm also noting the small detail of him holding the gun in his left hand, instead of the right. It could be just artistic choice to show the details of his right, I can't say for certain. Heck, even the asymmetry could just be more 'Japanese artists love asymmetry'.

But something about it to me just feels... off. Like the black seems to extend past the arm onto his chest, where it almost vaguely looks like there's a gap in the coat. Maybe, if so, to allow a less-flexible arm through if he can't quite manage the sleeve?

Even more unlikely related, Euden also does generally seem to have/like having a tighter undershirt on underneath the main armor/outfit he's wearing. See his default art or even just 'Unexpected Requests'. The former, it also seems to be a one-sleeved thing to match with his higher amount of armor, implying it maaaaay be just a cultural tradition thing for what to wear under armor in Alberia. My probably-incomprehensible mind connects the two- Leo's wearing a black sleeve seemingly underneath the main coat that -> is that what would be his 'under armor shirt+sleeve' -> ...that he's now unable to fully cover up because whatever injury makes him incapable of fully dressing in his overcoat and is just using it as the 'good enough' coverup?

Like I said, this is high-level nonsense and projection, but in some wild world of mine it makes sense.

This is all speculative, but more concrete 'hm' material in his drafts can be found in this drawing:

Aha. Again, nothing concrete, but something between these drawings, between the artist(s?) playing with an eyepatch for him or the weird shirt-sleeve thing he was wearing in his beta designs, makes me seriously wonder what was going on.

Add in again all the extra notes and drama about him being so injured, etc etc, and I can start to see a thread forming: Leonidas might have been originally planned to be at least a bit maimed!

As a final note to this, note his sudden disappearance in canon for a long while after 16. 16-~24, he's content to be what I call jokingly Euden's secretary, instead directing Ilia and Emile to Euden's location instead of doing much himself. As if he's not fully up to his previous capacity to start causing problems, either because he's still in a long recovery or just flat-out not able to go out as much anymore and kill stuff.

He's overall relegated to filling this role in the story, as depicted with my microsoft-paint memery skillz:

In fact, you could almost think that the devs just weren't... intending on him being a problem again, despite his still-contrasting beliefs with Euden. Or maybe just unable to immediately create massive drama for round 3. I could see Leonidas pulling a 'wow Euden nice to see you're back but you see here your kingdom is also kinda mine now? I never said I'd give it back... ok now join me or die' whenever Euden came back, disabled via injury or not. By then, he could've had time to plant seeds of defenses/discontent with Euden+puffing himself up or other strategies to ensure Euden can't take back his kingdom, too.

Honestly, I could've seen that being a fun/interesting plot. Leonidas, just as potent a threat to Euden, but now has switched his means to Euden's, turning Euden's advantages against him. Words or violence, Leonidas will have his way!

Ahem. This is getting long, so I'll cut it off there, but yeah, something about his overall treatment in the post-12 canon world reeks of something to me, that they were thinking of more permanent consequences for Leonidas' fight. Which, too bad! The siblings as a whole probably ought've been a bit more maimed in true throughout canon. They seemed afraid of that or the wider fear of killing them and taking their pieces off the board, as we later see with the Gala!Zethia copout there with her now being 'blind'... and also having no problems in Bondforged, which in retrospect kinda adds to argument with Leonidas.

In any case, I do hope that these little theories have given someone more to chew on regarding Dragalia and its lore!

[laranoa]

I used to think it was just kind of a silly fan theory but the more I think about it they really did make Nintendo the main villain of Dragalia Lost huh

[wereallylostnowbois]

What was up with Leonidas absorbing some of Morsayati's power? Am I misremembering or did that actually happen just before we got Alex and was never bought up again?

I'm actually so glad you asked this Leonidas is such a fascinating subject. So basically, yes, in Chapter 8 Leonidas does aquire some of Morsayati's power from a binding ruin somewhere near Valkaheim, he then uses this power to get himself out of there via otherworld gate, leaving Euden & Co, along with Alex, to fend for themselves against the fiends.

Now this power is brought up again in Chapter 10, and possibly some chapters in-between I can't quite remember. Anyway in Chapter 10, the chapter where all of Euden's siblings join Morsayati and rally against him, Morsayati (currently possessing Zethia) seems to acknowledge that Leonidas has some of his power and even says this to him.

Which is intriguing for a lot of reasons, but mostly because Leonidas and Morsayati actually parallel each other a bit. Leonidas lost his mother to a storm caused by a dragon and took to hating dragons as a result, Morsayati spawned from the hatred Mordecai felt seeing Elysium kill Ilia. Interesting, if a but off topic.

Now, to my knowledge, Chapter 10 is the last time we see this brought up ever again (Euden even fights him in a later chapter, we don't see it get used at all). However i do have a few theories to offer.

Theory 1: The Writers Forgot

Exactly what it says on the tin, we don't see Leonidas using his otherworld powers post Chapter 10 because the writers forgot he had them. I personally find this one to be unlikely because the dl writers are remarkably good at keeping a handle on even insignificant details (they even keep track of which members of Euden's party can and cannot sense the flow of mana, which is a detail almost no one bothers to look for) so its difficult to imagine them losing track Leonidas having otherworld powers.

Theory 2: He Lost His Powers

Now. Leonidas' powers directly originate from Morsayati, who was just kind of absorbed by Beren in Chapter 14. Its entirely possible that with Morsayati himself gone so too did his power vanish from the world. This does leave an unexplained gap in Chapters 11 to 14 where there's no explanation, but to my memory the only ability Leonidas really got from Morsayati was otherworld gates, which can only be used to transport a few people, and usually when we see Leonidas in these chapters hes traveling with a large army.

Theory 3: Actively Stopped

So the idea that Leonidas actively stopped using his otherworld abilities is mostly based on the idea that post-chapter 14 he seems to try to build a better reputation for himself, offering supplies to the displaced citizens who were attempting to kill Euden (under the assumption Euden was now possessed by Morsayati), reshaping Valkaheim into a normally functioning city as opposed to whatever it was before, and so forth. Its not difficult to imagine that between trying to make a better name for himself and the threat of people still looking for an answer to where Morsayati went, he made the wise choice to stop actively using Morsayati's power.

Id also like to note that absolutely none of what I'm saying here detracts from the idea that Leonidas is still actively plotting world domination (as seen in Gala Leonidas' adventurer story). That's still very much a thing that is happening.

Theory 4: Lost His Powers But In A Different Way

So in Forgotten Truths we learned that Morsayati is literally Mordecai's hatred made manifest. Its entirely possible that in order to use Morsayati's power you have to be rather hate filled yourself, a criteria Leonidas definitely meets in his earlier appearances.

Yeah...

Anyway this theory follows that since Leonidas seems to calm down a bit as the story progresses he may simply lose the use of Morsayati's ability as a result. This one's a bit more speculation than the others given that we have very little precedent for how Morsayati's abilities actually work, especially in this regard, but a theory's a theory.

Anyway yeah in summary there's no real canon explanation but I have a few thoughts of my own. Hope this answers your original question.

[neotheatric]

calling it now

bella IS lapis

it was mentioned that lapis never asks for ransoms, yet now she’s asking for 10m rupies??? not to mention the fact that bella didn’t scream when she was kidnapped (which, if they’re the same person, the lights would’ve HAD to have been out, or everyone would’ve noticed bella just. leaving), or that lapis somehow knew where the opera had moved

their sprites look way too similar to be coincidental. also, roses? when bella’s named after a flower? not very subtle

i’m a little foggy on motive, but bella probably wants to start her own opera company

[zephyr-paladyn]

the apostles and their symbolism and parallels

i noticed some interesting things about the apostles...

heavy spoilers ahead

first connection I want to make: the 6 apostles mirror the 6 chess pieces.

KING basileus, meaning "emperor" or "king." the most important piece. basileus is the "leader" of the apostles. if he falls, or gives himself to satan, it is game over for the apostles. the king himself does not hold much power like the other pieces, but is still very important -- basileus has a noble goal, yet weak justification for his means. the most interesting thing in the plot is that basileus is betraying his other chess pieces. QUEEN regina, meaning "queen." the most powerful piece. regina is the "commander" of the apostles. the queen can move freely; parallels regina's fighting skill and tactics. especially ruthless, just like how a queen in chess symbolizes. BISHOP nevin, meaning "holy" or "saintly." after the king and queen, the bishop is next in line to rule -- just like how nevin has an aptitude for leadership in his own way. considered the third most powerful on the board. ROOK ryszarda, meaning "hardy" and powerful." just like how the castle walls of the rook defend, ryszarda is tough and strong herself. KNIGHT faris, meaning "horseman" or "knight." just like the rook, the knight is dedicated to defending the higher pieces. (ryszarda and faris are especially close and trust in each other, and perform well together.) the knight has the ability to leap over other pieces, and faris is also agile and nimble. PAWN pinon, meaning "pearl/gem; that which beholds." pinon also sounds phonetically similar to "pawn." the pawn can be "used" by the higher ups (basileus) but can unlock higher potential by "promoting" if they reach that point in chess (pinon's hidden potential.)

next connection i want to make: the apostles + origa mirror some members of the south grastaea cast, particularly those within the church.

PINON AND ELISANNE both water attuned, bunny motifs, associated with purity, and have brimming, exceptional mana potential. are associated with a sense of naivety, although willing to grow and learn, deciding their respective paths for themselves.

NEVIN AND CURRAN generally well-intentioned but have their own faults (nevin being a bit too laid back and even blasphemous; curran also constantly messing up on his words.). both shadow attuned, follows their own unique path of their faith, have some smarts for their respective jobs.

RYSZARDA AND JULIETTA both light attuned; both are really strong in their positions, but easily get anxious/uncertain about themselves. however, when needed, they can muster up enough courage to protect those they love and care about.

FARIS AND ALEX traumatic pasts that haunt them, has/had to "strive to perfection" in their respective jobs, both have a similar aesthetic/vibe of assassin/rogue. also both were convicted of a crime they didn't do due to manipulation on another party's behalf -- trying to get [ pinon/elisanne ] to turn on them. both are very serious about their goals, and genuinely care for others in their own way. also, both have some lore ties to a secret underground organization -- for faris, it’s the syndicate (mentioned/implied in his adventurer story) and for alex, it’s dorothy’s assassin guild (in her gala story.) bonus: ranged flame units that inflict scorchrend (even if summer alex is an alt... lol) BASILEUS AND TOBIAS okay this is the fun part, i am a big tobias fan and seeing the basileus parallels with tobias was.. really intriguing? tobias enacted senseless killing but realized it wasn't "the truth." basileus was a victim of senseless destruction and wanted to enact vengeance. both want to change the church somehow, but tobias does it through an ideal of "love," whereas basileus is driven by "war, vengeance;" he causes destruction, so that the ends may justify the means. both would sacrifice something (for tobias, himself; for basileus, others] for their causes if it meant creating a changed world. tobias using the power of the goddess, bas looking to the power of satan. also, wind attuned, hold a sort of "leader" position, light blond hair.

POST BASILEUS RELEASE UPDATE:

so, I do want to make some addendums/revisions for my own point, seems they're a bit more similar than opposites. but still have some opposites in other ways. bas isn't fully what we thought he was. they both fought for the happiness of others, and love in their hearts -- but for tobias, it's for the happiness of all regardless of who they are, while basileus fights for the happiness of those close to him. both have someone close to them who has a butterfly/faerie motif (nino, origa.) both tobias + nino, and basileus + origa are foils who learned things from each other to develop/improve. ORIGA AND ZETHIA auspex of the church with similar mana to each other. origa came from a lowly village and worked her way up to the ranks of auspex, whereas zethia hails from royalty. both have siblings they're very close to although not related by blood. also, both have been overtaken by a demonic otherworldly entity, and have strong resolves to their respective goals.

REGINA AND EUDEN tying into origa and zethia, we have the other pair of the siblings who are close, and yet not related by blood. both are respected and beloved leaders/commanders of their respective groups -- although regina is more level-headed and grounded, whereas euden is a bit more idealistic. both had to climb the ranks/prove their worth and earn the respect of others. both mirror certain important historical figures in grastaea -- euden to alberius (obvious reasons) and regina to ilia (technology/alchemy genius)

also, this. colorful burst S2s with multiple effects, relating to the versatility they have due to the bonds they have with their allies.

and another visual to consider.. reaching out while their siblings get overtaken by a demon...

of course, all of that is just a theory, i might update this post from time to time. but i think it’s really interesting, and serves to show how certain plot points may intertwine in the upcoming main story. dragalia lost sure loves its parallels. there’s a lot in here

[halidom-confessions]

To the anon with the pendant ask—I’ve always figured it was Alberius’ pendant, since he inherited his light and all, but I could be wrong. Kinda bothersome it’s not ever mention it? If there’s supposed to be some sort of meaning to it as is suggested in his art, why not address it?

[gia-is-fangirlin]

This is the blessed Gala Zena free daily 10 pull. May it also bless your rolls.

[whichships]

HELLO??!?. HELLO????>? IS NO ON E GONNA SCREAMN ABOUT THIS HECKIGN RAY OF SUNSHINE WIHT ME ?|>!????|?!!|????

[siennamon]

a bit late but here's anniversary nina on a cupcake

[incorrectdragalialost]

Euden: Is, uh, is Heinwald dangerous?

Curran: Actually, he's a genius.

Heinwald: I am.

Euden: That, uh, that doesn't answer my question.

[valeriefauxnom]

Yet Another Crack Theory: Phares and Elysium

I've uncovered the totally intended deeply hidden lore before, whether it was Leonidas' intended maiming that they backed out from committing to, to Midgardsormr being the dragon that accidentally killed the royal family's mom, and now it's time I do it again, this time even bigger and better for a correspondingly greater level of nonsense I am channeling. Seriously, I would best render myself like so for this one, so consider it your fair warning:

What latest crack theory did I unearth? Well, hear me out:

Were they intending Phares to transform into Elysium, who was dead?

Now, mind you, this theory is inherently a matter of early-game speculation, before Nedrick and Sacred Tree drama kicked up, much less Xenos drama. This is conjecturing for what they possibly might have been planning instead of what we got, as Dragalia was written by several authors working separately that had different visions for the story.

With that in mind, let's assemble the pins on the conspiracy board I've created...

The crux of this all starts with NPC Phares' art. The siblings had fully designed NPC art with corresponding titles, instead of the generic wooden pedestal. For example, this is Chelle's, and her title is 'The Inferno'.

This is Phares'.

Looks... pretty bland on first glance, almost fitting for a generic 3 star unit, but there's a lot more going on here. For starters, his title. Dragalia Lost brushed over them in-game entirely, but his Japanese NPC titles were 'Dawning Light' (a thing that would later be reflected into his actual unit's 'Dawning Wind',) and 'White Light' (the Japanese has simpler or alternate titles above the actual one, which sometimes gives a different title). Keep this in mind for later.

Next, take a look at the background behind him.

Who is it, though? Well, things are muddy, but there are two possible answers: a proto-Uranus... or Elysium.

You can see it either way, depending on what aspects you choose to focus on. If one is looking at the chin structure, it looks more like Uranus. If one instead focuses on the chest, though, as @soumarhea (whom I will be using additional observations from) has, though, you might find another dragon...

The chest resembles Elysium's ornament.

If we entertain the possibility that this is Elysium, more curiosities open up. Why would Phares have an Elysium carving on a stone behind him? Why, it almost looks a bit like...

A tombstone. And it's breaking apart.

Huh.

This is where we can start pulling in Phares some more. 'Dawning Light' is a suspicious title, in this regard. Dawning carries a certain... 'growing' connotation. Ascending. Elysium is strongly tied to light (in fact, I'm going to come around to that later, as well). So if Phares is the 'dawning light'...

But wait, there's a lot more symbolism and stuff to examine. Take a look underneath the main body of his pedestal, and you'll find a certain hidden light, shining outward. Fairly well-hidden, but it also helps strengthen this 'concealed light' presentation.

Let's also take a look at Phares' design compared to Elysium's. Both share a color scheme: white scales, blue accessories, and gold for further highlights. Phares' messy hair also, -extremely vaguely, mind you, -reminds me of Elysium's horn set, with his strands often turning upward like Elysium's do. Perhaps most damning even if it's still vague, they share chest ornaments of a reminiscent manner:

With Emphatic Red And Purple Lines, hopefully it's easier to see where I'm coming from:

The triangular structure surrounding the circular centerpiece, the point at the bottom, the supporting lines that weave underneath the main body... it's far from exact, but there is something there, I think. Throw in whatever weird white leather offshoots of Phares' outfit (they're separate from his leather tunic) as the lower protrusions on Elysium if you want, too!

Their iridescent green eyes and scale color are also suspiciously close:

So now that I've hopefully established that Phares and Elysium shared surprisingly many traits in their overall design, what else could there be to suggest something as farfetched as 'Phares was going to turn into Elysium'?

I'll crack into Phares and his name a bit more here. As I've gone over in this post, Phares shared some surprisingly deep Greek roots (as did the royal fam in general, with several inspired with Greco-Roman names/theming). The long and short of it are these points:

-Phares' name is quite possibly drawn from 'Phanes', a progenitor god from an earlier strain of Greek mythos. Phanes is strongly associated with light, sometimes called 'light-bringer', and has any number of other connections to other figures/concepts like knowledge, Uranus, and more. Even if I ignore the Greek, his name is literally 'lighthouses' or 'headlights' in French.

-Phares' JP skill names are in Greek. If the DL team had just translated out the sounds, his skills would look more like 'Desmos Orkos' to us, etc.

Hm. Yet more ties to light.

Speaking of light, Elysium (and Ilia) also ties to this Greco-Roman mythology.

Elysium is more of a place than a creature, and is sort of this heavenly plain in the Greek and Roman afterlife. Ilia, meanwhile, is another name for the mother of the founders of Rome, Rhea Silvia, via birthing Romulus and Remus. So we universally see strong Greek and Roman influence between Elysium, Ilia, and Phares, all tied to influential and important figures in its mythologies.

I'll divert a bit to the early lore, especially what we know of dragonblood and certain events.

Specifically, the origins of dragonblood: by all accounts, dragonblood originated from the light of Elsyium's pact/Primal Mark Theft with Ilia shining down and granting people dragonblood.

Note, while Forgotten Truths paints it as a more... violent process, it's originally described more gently:

But even with the more violent take on it, we see a recurrent theme of Elysium's light or the Primal Pactsone being the tying element to what gave the family dragonblood.

Now let's look at one of the great mysteries of the game that never got resolved: Euden's chapter 1 transformation.

Into Elysium, mind you, a thing that only Morsayati seems to inherently recognize. Even Zethia or Elisanne are not freaking out about Elysium being suddenly there. The former is more concerned with if she 'awoke his dragonblood somehow'. They don't recognize him.

But if Elysium was around, wouldn't the world have at least some idea about what he looked like? Even a singular sighting over a century might have spurred many a depiction that carried on.

Enter the 'Elysium's kinda dead' aspect of this theory: he's not been around for a while, long enough that his looks don't cause immediate recognition?

The broader point with this section, though, is that there is very strong ties between the family's dragonblood and Elysium. If Elysium is 'hiding in the blood' enough for people like Zethia to 'awaken' it, is it really so far-fetched to go one step further?

What if wyrmscale is just another 'awakening' of Elysium in the blood, perhaps trying to claw back to life? We know that powerful dragons undergo reincarnation in Dragalia. With Elysium being an unusual, powerful, unusually powerful dragon even among the 'big dog' dragons, it's possible his reincarnation is somehow complicated. His spirit might have persisted past death and is just trying to find another body.

Early!Phares is highly doubtful wyrmscale even is a disease to start with:

Instead, he's become quite enamored with the idea of turning into a dragon, in contrast to his earlier fear. Furthermore, he has been continually dreaming of turning into a dragon:

Here, sourmarhea suggests that this change of perspective is a corruption of perspective a la Xenos - that Elysium is influencing him to take actions to complete his transformation/revival. Speaking of Xenos, this scene is weird in retrospect, as the god would likely care not for being a dragon and would thus not be very encouraging of Phares' dreams of becoming one.

Another point to this possible 'Elysium influence' is Phares' actions regarding the Sacred Shards. We don't know for certain, but Chelle at one point almost seems to suggest that Phares might have been doing ~something~ to, presumably, the castle's Shard.

Note her characteristic 'fan hiding face' expression being used here - the best signal we have that she darn well knows more and is choosing not to comment!

Now, what were the Sacred Shards? Well, they were fragments of the sword Dragalia, forged from Elysium's pactstone. Alberius shattered them to create the Shards.

If they were scattered, it might stand to reason that Elysium is wanting all of them back, to assemble his own power or for some other purpose. Say, like perhaps it would help his latest potential host actually survive the little 'turn into a dragon' thing.

And when the singular castle's Shard has this hint of an unheard-of 'shadow' in it, Aurelius is so worried that he sends Euden to pact to bring back the Mistholt's shard as well as going out himself to get another one:

"Wait! That doesn't make any sense," maybe says the lore-r, "It's not actually Elysium's pactstone that created the sacred shards, it was Primal Mids'!"

Two explanations:

-One, they were originally going to play it straight and that it was Elysium's pactstone, again, this is for what they might have originally been intending instead of how it developed, or,

-Two, that since even ELYSIUM HIMSELF is completely unaware in canon as it was that Mids-0 did a switcharoo,

...It's more than possible that Elysium just hadn't gotten to that knowledge that the Sacred Shards aren't his and was still in the 'gather them' stage.

I would also like to observe that we... never really see the capital swarmed with fiends as is told what would happen if a Shard failed, even before Aurelius is possessed. Even with whatever 'shadow' that had Aurelius so distressed to send Euden out and go himself to fetch two Shards, we see no proof that the Shard itself was truly in danger as Aurelius feared. Thus, it could have been a cosmetic effect meant to spur action from others, like this dramatization and informative diagram shows:

...If this isn't enough crack, let's go deeper!

By that, I mean let me throw more stuff at the wall to see what sticks or resonates with anyone.

First, let's throw out the wyrmprint 'Holywyrm's Advent'. Wyrmprints in Dragalia sometimes came early or late. Whether it was 'Syndicate Mask' outright talking about the Syndicate at launch, or the one wymprint with Nephren, a character that went wholly unreleased, timing was sometimes... off. Referencing things that didn't exist yet.

But Holywyrm's Advent tells a certain story at odds with its debut event, Dawn of Dragalia. It instead regales about Elysium himself coming down from the heavens (also, note how Phares often seems to be floating/flying around and Elysium also likes to fly/float) to look cool and give orders. One small thing about its second stage, though...

So came the Holywyrm, revealing law to all. Thou shalt neither hate, nor kill, nor act out in willful ignorance. And with this decree, order came unto the world.

...Elysium himself didn't really seem to care too much about the truth. He's active in spreading lies and forcing a certain vision of events.

But you know who does? Yup, Phares, the resident 'I want to learn everything' know-it-all in the family. I reckon anyone acting in willful ignorance might get on his nerves greatly to the degree it finds itself in a list forbidding things like murder. Who knows, maybe a new Elysium might be influenced a bit by his newest form if he needed to descend again...

Speaking of, the Summoner. For all we saw of her, the .2 seconds in a summon, we knew 0.00 of her.

...But she sure looks like she'd fit snug in the family, huh? She and Phares even share that blue-gold aesthetics, two running golden threads in their clothes, and a chest ornament.

...Like I said, I know I'm grasping at straws here. I told you I was getting deeper into the crack!

Yes, yes, I know that the Summoner's design is itself reminiscent of the Knight's of Glory design for Tliff, but Tliff was notably brown-haired, from what I'm seeing. Why change it to blond, the signature color of the family as Alberius' genes apparently were pretty good to keep printing his colors 300 years later with great consistency?

Let's just move on to something a little bit more grounded: Phares' Mysterious Moving Book. That one story where the Phares dreaming image came from also has this tidbit, as pointed out again by soumarhea:

Phares' musings regarding wyrmscale and his changing views regarding it all stem from him unexpectedly stumbling upon a book about wyrmscale again, a very old book that he's not seen for a while. How did it move? A spiritual nudge from Elysium to serve as a reminder, perhaps, since we are well aware that even more mundane creatures' ghosts can influence real things? Also note his repeated dream's confusion that his voice is well, his when he transforms - a hint that it would be Elysium more behind the wheel?

Speaking of Phares, let's wind back the clock again to Phanes, the deity that seemed to serve as his namesake.

Phanes is noted for 'hatching from a cosmic egg', a thing that makes me reflexively think of the dragons in Dragalia, who generally seemed to reproduce via eggs as one would expect. It could have been used as a sort of transitional stage for him if the Elysium transformation ever went down. To be fair, though, it's not like we ever had any cases of humans in giant egglike things to transform into dragons before...

Oh wait. Whoops.

In any case, I'll stop with the more crazy observations. This is long and crazy enough as it is.

In summation:

-We have a very strong correlation between Phares, light, and Elysium. Phares' 'light' is additionally 'ascending', growing.

-His design features similar elements to Elysium, ones I might view as suspiciously similar.

-His earlier comments and desires appear at odds with Xenos' interests, as Xenos likely isn't all that fond of dragons and would not support Phares wanting to be a dragon

-Phares has seemingly been doing something to at least one Sacred Shard, things that Elysium thinks are his and might think that he could use.

-Nobody can recognize Elysium in the modern day, except the demon lord that has fought him over 1k years ago.

-The family's dragonblood has very strong ties to Elysium and seemingly originates from him.

-Wyrmscale itself is tied to a person presenting with 'dragon-like' mana

-Phares, mythologically, takes inspiration from a figure just as 'grand' as other central figures in the Ilian church

-Phares' perspective has shifted over time, from initially being afraid of becoming a dragon to welcoming it. Unexplained phenomena are additionally happening around him. Subconscious influence, perhaps?

Let me synthesize this into one possible narrative to wrap this all up...

Ahem.

---

Elysium, through some means, has been killed. Maybe Alberius done it. Maybe he gave his life. But, as such a powerful dragon, his spirit lingers even as his body didn't.

He wants a new one to be reincarnated as he would be as a dragon.

One problem: he's in that pesky category of dragons that seems to evolve through more ordinary creatures (see Kamuy, who awakens through a wolf), like humans. Dragonblooded humans, who already share a strong base of connection with him and his mana.

So he tries to revive through them. He's an important dragon with work to do. But they keep dying. Dragonblooded or not, they're still human. He gets hopeful each time, as his ivory scales start to sprout, but they never can stick the landing and actually transform.

But then he hits Phares, Prospective Wyrmscale Victim 23 (or whatever). And boy, this time there's promise. He might need to be a bit more active. The boy's afraid of dying, afraid of being a dragon. Nudge him a bit, -dragons are cool, after all, and provide hope. Maybe the Sacred Shards would help you him survive?

So he gets his human to start tampering with them on the side, to prompt others to start assembling them for him.

Things go wrong. Even if the biggest chance has done his best to keep his head down and play both sides without really committing to anything, things with the Shards aren't working out.

If they're not working, though, Elysium still needs something powerful to help his little human survive, because 'nothing' isn't cutting it.

One thing might suffice, though, just as holy and right as he is: the Dawnshard.

---

As a final note, I'd like to explain the 'Dawnshard' comment there. Most drama surrounding the Dawnshard centered around Elysium and Nedrick (and Euden's gang as bystanders, of course). Nedrick, notably, probably didn't exist for a while in the writer's minds. Euden not being the true heir was a decision made by the director, not a writer. His existence was probably wholly contrived from the need to make someone be the true 7th scion. But we did see Phares set a trajectory towards the Tree in canon, one that was... threadbarely used. He pops in at random intervals and exits just the same.

I could see him being shoved away in favor of Nedrick, to give him a goal and plan for Euden to contest. Phares as a character was increasingly stressed in the ch.13-14 stretch, almost as if they were planning on focusing on him and his plans... and then Nedrick sweeps in, redirects the plot ch.15-22 around him and how he relates to Euden's identity. Phares vanishes for five chapters in the meantime. Something doesn't quite add up.

If you've made it this far, thanks for entertaining this spot of nonsense. Am I aware that this is likely off the mark? Absolutely. Do I think that there are a number of suspicious elements that make me think that Phares might have had some deeper tie with Elysium, at minimum? YES. But what do you all think?

[fiannalover]

CyGames’ Geniuses are the same.

[mxdotpng]

there is a lot i want dragalia to talk about in the last few updates but most of all i want them to tell me What The Fuck Is Wrong With Euden

[wereallylostnowbois]

The Mei Hou Wang & Mordecai Connection

What follows is a theory I’ve been forming for some time on the nature of fiends, spoilers for the main quest up to Chapter 25 (part one) and events I'll warn of as I go (it's gonna be a lot of them).

In the first part of chapter 25 Mordecai reveals himself to be the "heart" of Xenos, removed and having formed his own consciousness and personality. I have personal suspicions about where this may be going plot-wise but I will spare you for today. I should note before continuing that the specific word Mordecai uses in the jp version is kokoro, which refers less to the actual organ and more to the spiritual "heart" (the ability for compassion and empathy or however you choose to interpret it). So, yknow, with this information no wonder Xenos is Like That. This is something intriguing that meshes well with a mystery I've been picking at for awhile.

Raid Bosses:

Excuse my jumping from idea to idea with little explanation, its the mental illness, I'll tie everything together in a bit.

Theres something thats been bothering me for a long while about raid boss fiends and it's quite simply how... Sentient they seemed by comparison to your average fiend.

Its well established lore at this point that fiends are just coalesced black mana, and that creatures that can generate black mana can create new fiends (most notably Xenos, Satan, and Morsayati), however theres an alternate manner in which fiends can be formed.

Spoilers for the events Loyalty's Requiem and Kindness and Captivity ahead!

(yeah i know these are old events but there's really no predicting)

In Loyalties Requiem its established (explicitly stated by Pele) that if exposed to black mana for long enough a person can transmute into a fiend, in this specific case the transmutation of King Archeole into a Cyclops fiend. We see a few other instances of this throughout various events but I'll refrain for now.

In Kindness and Captivity its further established that this same phenomena can occur in dragons, with Harle (the fake one) explicitly stating that he utilized black mana to transform the peaceful village protector Sylvia into the living weapon Hypnos.

Now with this out of the way we can sit for hours and theorize about the specific origins of each and every fiend raid boss, however there's one in particular that seems a bit... Off? More so than the others.

See, regardless of how it may or may not have been made, the base factor that connects fiends is their "fiendish" nature, they cause problems, they attack people, they're usually outright violent or, barring that, problematic.

Enter the anomaly: Mei Hou Wang.

Spoilers for Timeworn Torment ahead!

Mei Hou Wang is an interesting case being a peaceful fiend, he's what I'm actually here to talk about today. See recently I've been rereading events so that I can have a better grasp of the lore before it all goes down the drain, and most fiend raid bosses make sense in the context of either being coalesced black mana or a creature corrupted by it, but one so far has stood out to me, that being Mei Hou Wang.

For those of you who haven't read the event and didn't heed my spoiler warning, let me catch you up. Mei Hou Wang is the fiend trapped in the Jin Gu Er, a Qilin relic seen previously in Echoes of Antiquity, at the beginning of Timeworn Torment he breaks loose of the relic, though his memories remain sealed, and he behaves in an overall peaceful and empathetic manner (even going so far as to throw himself in front of a fiend to stop it from hurting a squirrel). Later in the event the seal is fully broken and his memories and powers return, causing him to once more become violent.

This isn't base fiend violence, though.

Long ago, (presumably a few thousand years, seeing as he was sealed in a Qilin relic) Mei Hou Wang was a peaceful fiend, though he had the unfortunate ability to spawn more friends, whether he desired to or not (my working theory on this is that he's just continuously generating enough black mana to make fiends). With this ability he posed a threat to civilization, despite his peaceful nature, and was sealed within the Jin Gu Er, where he began to harbor a hatred and desire for vengeance. Ergo, in both ancient times and in modernity when he's an amnesiac, Mei Hou Wang defaults to being peaceful. This is noted, even in game, to be highly unusual.

So what is Mei Hou Wang really?

Well, my personal theory is that he's another entity like Mordecai, created from some other aspect of Xenos and gifted with some of his ability (Xenos has the ability to generate black mana and create fiends, though he seems to prefer the "terminals", yknow the cube things that are now plot relevant, and I believe its been said now that Xenos is the origin of black mana).

Now my evidence for this comes mostly from Morsayati, who you'll recall is an entity that split from Mordecai and harbors the ability to generate fiends (this ability that persists even after it is sealed and its body strewn across the land, and being the entire reason that Euden goes to fetch a Sacred Shard at the beginning of the game). They share the same ability set which, yeah, I'll admit, there are other fiends out there that can spontaneously generate fiends, but with Mei Hou Wang and Mordecai both originating from the space between worlds and defaulting peaceful but having these abilities at their disposal anyway, I think it's fair to at least insinuate they're connected.

Let me know if I got anything horrifically wrong in my details.

[neotheatric]

i don’t think anyone’s actually dead (well, obviously no one’s gonna die because of the main storyline, but we’re just talking about the event’s scope).

what’s the very first thing scylla does in the raid battles? she turns the adventurer you’re controlling into a doll. i wondered why she had the ability to do that.

we were told that luca wasn’t breathing and that he didn’t have a heartbeat. i don’t remember any kind of obvious cause of death mentioned.

i really doubt that anyone actually murdered anyone else, especially given that the party wasn’t informed about the game until after luca’s “death.”

and, sure, carmen was telling the truth about not being able to leave the island, but we can’t assume she told the truth about everything else. she’s connected to scylla somehow, and may be able to use her doll magic despite not being able to physically interact with anyone

tl;dr: no one’s actually dying, scylla’s using her magic to turn everyone into dolls

[zephyr-paladyn]

theory: mascula, laxi, and the archangels

Briefly touched upon in a previous post, I’ll dive into this topic a bit more.

(spoilers ahead!)

As we established before, the Star Tetrahedron shape reflects Mascula/Laxi as characters, and also indicates a potential link to Metatron. 

In sacred geometry, there are 5 shapes, or platonic solids, within Metatron’s Cube that maintain order and balance in the universe. However, there is a sixth shape: the Star Tetrahedron. And that is the shape seen above in the Mascula/Laxi 3rd anniversary countdown artwork.

As a refresher, here’s my analysis on that:

as for the "star tetrahedron" itself, it represents duality: physical body and spiritual self; male and female; and heaven and earth. this ties into mascula and laxi's characters: mascula controlling the "mind" in eden mode while laxi focuses on the attacking "body;" and mascula and laxi being of different genders. as for "heaven" and "earth," this could represent maestro coming from the sky city ark, and masculaxi being technology intended to aid humans. alternatively for "heaven" and "earth," the fact that the star tetrahedron is enclosed within "metatron's cube" may be a pointer to metatron in-universe. the archangels all have white hair, a trait shared by masculaxi. additionally, sandalphon is somewhat mechanical/technological herself. masculaxi being man-made (of the earth,) versus their potential connection to the angels (of the heavens.)

I thought that was it. There’s more.

I recently found another link between Masculaxi and Metatron -- first, let’s look at Gala Laxi’s skill names while activated in Eden Mode:

Eden Code 05: Gevurah and Eden Code 01: Keter.

“Gevurah” (strength) and “Keter” (crown) are sefirot, or two of the ten attributes of how the divine manifests himself in this world, in Jewish Kabbalah. These ten sefirot are part of the Tree of Life. Additionally, the numbers of each Eden Code correspond to their placement on the Tree of Life.

And in some interpretations, each sefirah has an archangel attributed to them. As luck has it, some of these archangels are mentioned in Dragalia Lost.

Keter - Metatron Tiferet - Raphael Hod - Michael Yesod - Gabriel Malkuth - Sandalphon

If you wish to read more on the Tree of Life and the sefirot, feel free to read up more, but I won’t go into more elaboration here. I think the key takeaway here is that Keter, Laxi’s skill, correlates to Metatron. 

And as another thing to note, “Eden” is a biblical reference as well, to the Garden of Eden -- with Adam and Eve, male and female... Mascula and Laxi...?

So, via the star tetrahedron and Keter, Mascula and Laxi have undeniable lore connections to Metatron in-universe, and have heavy religious/spirituality references as well. 

Who exactly is Metatron, though? We don’t quite know yet, but these connections give us something to look forward to beyond just a simple namedrop. 

As for what I think...? We’ve had hints that the next story arc after dealing with the Progenitor may be the Sky City Ark. Hinted at in Ageless Artifice and Gala Mascula’s story, our next destination after Grams may very well be above the clouds into the advanced civilization of the Ark. Given our current setting is Grams, and our focus is on the Apostles/Archangels, we previously had no connections between the Ark and Grams, so how could those plot points transition into each other? -- However, now that we know this, Mascula and Laxi could be the key to this plot transition.

And... That’s it for now. There might be more in the future... 

(long winded side note: My friends and I are still trying to work out the whole Orchis thing? Mascula and Laxi derive from “orchis masculolaxiflora,” and Eirene and Finni come from the “irene finney orchid;” both Mascula and and Eirene have been noted to reference their systems as an “Orchis System,” aaand there’s someone in GBF named Orchid/Orchis? That might be the extent of it for now but I feel like it might mean something more later on, especially given Mascula and Laxi are mimics of Eirene and Finni’s technology, but are somewhat more advanced due to the mana kiln implementation... And the whole mystery of Maestro too, it’s kind of a lot that we don’t know and thus cannot make a proper verdict on if it means anything specifically.)

Of course, this is all just speculation -- but I really do appreciate the amount of work and effort the Dragalia Lost team puts into their stories. It honestly is a bit too much for a mobile game (like what the hell.) But I really enjoy it a lot!!