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History (A Condensed Version)
Digestible app version as opposed to the unnecessarily long writeups (I, II, III).
A couple quick notes:
-I'm just going with the default Colette route for her history
-Sticking with the "normal" path for Sylvarant, which is going to Palmacosta after Ossa Trail
* indicates Raine's canon point.
Setting
In this world, there existed many races, including humans, elves, dwarves, and Summon Spirits. Half-elves were born between humans and elves but almost universally shunned by both races. Sylvarant and Tethe’alla were two great countries at war. They developed magitechnology that consumed vast amounts of mana and led to the destruction of the Giant Kharlan Tree, the world’s source of mana. The tree left behind the Great Seed, which couldn’t produce enough mana to sustain the world, though it would germinate into a new Giant Tree if exposed to a large source of mana. An ancient half-elf hero, Mithos Yggdrasill, ended the Great War between the two countries and formed pacts with all of the world’s Summon Spirits. However, his sister Martel was killed by humans and her soul became fused with the Great Seed; salvation of either one would lead to the loss of the other. Mithos thus used his pact with Origin to split the world into two worlds, Sylvarant and Tethe’alla, which he connected with mana links between the two worlds’ Summon Spirits. The mana links also served to protect the Great Seed, which he placed between the worlds. He then used the power of Origin to hold a comet of mana, Derris-Kharlan, above the two worlds. He set up a system where one world would always be flourishing and the other declining; mana would flow from the world in which the Summon Spirits were asleep to the world in which they were awake. By alternating this flow, the two worlds could survive on the tiny amount of mana produced by the Great Seed and neither world’s technology could progress far enough for the development of magitechnology. In addition, neither world was aware of the other’s existence, though it was possible to travel between them at their poles, leading to rumours here and there.
Mithos devised a version of the ancient history for each world, glorifying Martel as a goddess, and created the organization of Cruxis, the angels, which oversaw the Church of Martel. Cruxis used Derris-Kharlan as its headquarters. Behind the scenes, Cruxis also controlled the Desians, an organization primarily composed of half-elves that were responsible for wreaking havoc in the declining world and manufacturing ability-augmenting Exspheres. Evolved Exspheres known as Cruxis Crystals allowed Mithos and the other members of Cruxis, also mostly half-elves, to become angels. Mithos had eventually decided to use the Exspheres to turn everyone into lifeless beings in a twisted interpretation of Martel’s wish to end discrimination.
Cruxis sent Oracles to control each world’s mana lineage, from which the Chosen of Mana would be born. The church’s legend stated that the Chosen must go on the Journey of World Regeneration to release the Summon Spirit seals to awaken the spirits, become an angel, and climb the Tower of Salvation to awaken the goddess Martel who would then bless the world with mana once again. In reality, the Chosen’s journey reversed the mana flow, which was how the worlds switched between declining and flourishing. The Chosen’s journey had another secret purpose: once the Chosen became a true angel, their body would be offered as the vessel for Martel. Mithos intended to use this to revive Martel, but the Chosen’s body needed to have a mana signature close enough to Martel’s for it to be successful, hence Cruxis’ control of the Chosen lineages. This process went on for 4000 years. Eventually, one of Mithos' companions, Yuan, began to secretly work against him. Yuan formed the Renegades, who disguised themselves as Desians and tried to assassinate the Chosen to prevent Martel's revival; he also planned to eventually try to germinate the Great Seed.
At the time the story begins, Sylvarant has been in decline for many years and Tethe'alla has flourished a little too long. Almost everyone lives difficult lives in Sylvarant due to mana shortages and attacks by the Desians. Tethe'alla has begun to develop magitechnology and has a large gap between the rich and poor; half-elves are at the bottom of the caste system and largely reviled. The Renegades have also divulged information about the two worlds to the rulers of Tethe'alla and suggested that they have Sylvarant's Chosen assassinated.
Raine’s Backstory
Kloitz was a human dispatched from Meltokio, the centre of Tethe’alla, to investigate Heimdall, the village of the elves. He and an elven woman, Virginia, fell in love and had Raine, their half-elven daughter; eleven years later, they had Genis. Kloitz thus stayed in Heimdall, but a half-elf in the village tried to sell him out to the soldiers (presumably Meltokio’s; this is never specified). This led to a large incident where fighting broke out between the elves and half-elves, and Virginia’s entire family was blamed and subsequently banished from Heimdall. Somehow, the Imperial Research Academy of Sybak became aware of Raine and her high intelligence and wanted to seize her, but half-elf researchers were eternally imprisoned in their laboratories like slaves. The family fled from place to place and at one point boarded a ship, when the pursuers caught up to them. Raine fell overboard into the sea and nearly drowned; the trauma from the incident caused her to maintain a strong fear of water into adulthood. Virginia became desperate to save her children and decided to try sending them through the Otherworldly Gate, one of the poles between worlds, to Sylvarant. She succeeded and fled with Kloitz to Ymir Forest just outside of Heimdall before they collapsed of exhaustion. They were found by the elder of Exire, a hidden half-elf city, who took them in. Kloitz died of an illness and Virginia's mind shattered.
However, it seems that Virginia never explained what she was doing when she sent her children through the gate. Raine was suddenly alone with her infant brother in Sylvarant; she came to believe they were abandoned by Virginia because they were half-elves, though she hid the truth from Genis later on and claimed their parents died. She also didn't realize that there were two different worlds, which isn't wholly surprising since Heimdall kept itself isolated and she likely didn't have the opportunity to learn much about Tethe'alla while they fled from Sybak. Instead, she became obsessed with searching for the few things she remembered from her childhood: Heimdall and the ruin where they were abandoned. This led her to develop a fascination, even fanaticism, with ruins and archaeology. Sylvarant was not that kind to half-elves either, though, and they travelled to many places but had difficulty finding somewhere that they could call home. At some point, Raine decided to have them pose as pureblooded elves since humans could not easily tell the difference by looks alone (elves and half-elves can see mana, but humans cannot). She eventually took some tests to become certified as a teacher, and when she was about 17, they came to the village of Iselia where the current Chosen, Colette, lived. Raine became the schoolteacher there and taught Colette, Lloyd, Genis, and the other children of the village while continuing to pose as an elf, since Iselia’s mayor had contempt for half-elves.
Game Plot
Lloyd, Raine, Genis, and a travelling mercenary named Kratos accompany Colette on the Journey of World Regeneration throughout Sylvarant. They travel to each seal to awaken the Summon Spirit, and Colette gains more angelic powers from the angel Remiel with each seal, though she also begins to give up her humanity in the process. During the journey, they get in scuffles with Desians, Renegades, and Sheena, the assassin sent from Tethe’alla. Sheena eventually joins them to help save people captured by the Desians and tells them what she knows about the two worlds. After the seals have all been released, Colette gives up her memories and heart to become an angel at the Tower of Salvation, but Remiel reveals that she will become Martel’s vessel. Raine also informs the others that becoming an angel means Colette will die, which was kept secret from Lloyd, Genis, and Sheena. They end up fighting Remiel and defeating him, but Kratos is revealed as an angel of Cruxis. The group is saved from Kratos and Yggdrasill by the Renegades, who wanted to prevent Colette from completing the ritual, though they then try to take Lloyd’s special Exsphere. They escape via the Renegades’ Rheairds (magical planes) into Tethe’alla.
They search for a way to save Colette and are joined by Zelos, Tethe’alla’s Chosen; Presea, another girl being used for an Exsphere project; and Regal, an imprisoned Tethe’alla noble. It is during their travels in Tethe’alla that Raine and Genis are revealed as half-elves, though the group more or less accepts them, and Raine rediscovers the Otherworldly Gate and reveals she and Genis were from Tethe’alla. Genis also befriends a half-elven boy who shares the name Mithos with Mithos the Hero, although he is in fact secretly Mithos Yggdrasill. After saving Colette, they come to discover the mana links between the worlds and try to have Sheena, who is a summoner, make pacts with all the Summon Spirits of both worlds in order to sever the mana links and separate the two worlds. The Renegades join forces with them to sever the mana links and fire mana at the Great Seed in an effort to germinate it, but the Great Seed instead goes out of control and wreaks havoc in Sylvarant. Kratos, the Renegades, and Lloyd’s group work together to bring it back under control for the time being, though it is no longer stabilized without the mana links. They return to Iselia, where the truth about Raine and Genis has been revealed to the villagers. The mayor refuses to accept them, but the villagers stand up for them and declare that Iselia will always be a place to which they can return.
Yuan then attempts to force Kratos into releasing Origin’s seal by threatening his son’s—Lloyd’s—life. Yuan’s treachery is discovered by Mithos, though, who reveals his true identity to the party before leaving with Kratos. The party decides to attack Cruxis and Yuan helps them get into the Tower of Salvation, where Zelos betrays the party by separating Colette from the group so she can be captured by angels. As they descend the tower in pursuit, they encounter traps that cause each party member to sacrifice themselves for Lloyd, one at a time*. However, Zelos secretly saves them from the traps before they die, having used the "betrayal" as a ruse to obtain a material needed for the pact with Origin, and they all show up in time to help Lloyd save Colette. Yggdrasill loses his mind after Martel tells him to return the worlds to their original state and twists her request into believing that she wants to take the Great Seed to Derris-Kharlan and leave the world behind. The group defeats him but doesn’t realize his soul lives on in the Cruxis Crystal, which Genis picks up. To release the seal on Origin, Lloyd defeats Kratos in a duel, but Yuan gives Kratos some of his mana to prevent him from dying when he releases the seal. Sheena then makes the pact with Origin, and the Aionis that Zelos obtained is used to forge a ring to allow Lloyd to wield the Eternal Sword, which possesses Origin’s power and is normally only usable by half-elves. Yggdrasill’s soul possesses Colette (or whoever was chosen as Lloyd's soulmate in Flanoir) and takes her to Derris-Kharlan in an effort to take the Great Seed away, so the party pursues to stop him. Everyone but Lloyd is caught in a trap that brings them face to face with their inner darkness and regrets; Raine is confronted by an illusion of her mother telling her that nobody wanted her. Lloyd saves everyone again by encouraging them to overcome the illusions, and Yggdrasill leaves Colette’s body and returns to his own. The group defeats him one last time before breaking his Cruxis Crystal so he can't continue to live on. Lloyd then uses the Eternal Sword to rejoin the worlds and expose the Great Seed to Derris-Kharlan’s mana, allowing it to germinate into a new tree that will supply the regenerated world with mana once again. After everything is over, Raine and Genis travel the world to help half-elves gain acceptance, knowing that they can always return home to Iselia when they want.
Notes
Before Zelos’ betrayal, the player can choose the character with whom Lloyd has a special scene in Flanoir. This does not greatly change the plot unless Kratos is chosen, in which case Zelos betrays the group for real and they kill him, resulting in Kratos being the one to save everyone from the traps and officially rejoin the party after the pact with Origin is made.
In an optional sidequest before everyone’s sacrifices at the Tower of Salvation, Raine’s backstory can be learned by going to Exire and meeting Virginia, who cradles a doll that she calls Raine and doesn’t recognize the real Raine and Genis. Raine learns the truth about their abandonment from her diary. In another optional scene later in the game, they can return to Exire again and Raine plays along with Virginia’s fantasy this time rather than upset her.
Raine may have been in a relationship with someone. She says she is unable to approach the unicorn because she is an "adult". Furthermore, in an optional sidequest, it's revealed that she received the Asgard Ruins' Crown of Earth from someone five years ago. The crown was part of a pair with the Crown of Heaven; Raine says that one is meaningless by itself and then cryptically states "there's no point in clinging to items I received from him....". The person she is referring to is not mentioned anywhere else in the game.
A couple quick notes:
-I'm just going with the default Colette route for her history
-Sticking with the "normal" path for Sylvarant, which is going to Palmacosta after Ossa Trail
* indicates Raine's canon point.
Setting
In this world, there existed many races, including humans, elves, dwarves, and Summon Spirits. Half-elves were born between humans and elves but almost universally shunned by both races. Sylvarant and Tethe’alla were two great countries at war. They developed magitechnology that consumed vast amounts of mana and led to the destruction of the Giant Kharlan Tree, the world’s source of mana. The tree left behind the Great Seed, which couldn’t produce enough mana to sustain the world, though it would germinate into a new Giant Tree if exposed to a large source of mana. An ancient half-elf hero, Mithos Yggdrasill, ended the Great War between the two countries and formed pacts with all of the world’s Summon Spirits. However, his sister Martel was killed by humans and her soul became fused with the Great Seed; salvation of either one would lead to the loss of the other. Mithos thus used his pact with Origin to split the world into two worlds, Sylvarant and Tethe’alla, which he connected with mana links between the two worlds’ Summon Spirits. The mana links also served to protect the Great Seed, which he placed between the worlds. He then used the power of Origin to hold a comet of mana, Derris-Kharlan, above the two worlds. He set up a system where one world would always be flourishing and the other declining; mana would flow from the world in which the Summon Spirits were asleep to the world in which they were awake. By alternating this flow, the two worlds could survive on the tiny amount of mana produced by the Great Seed and neither world’s technology could progress far enough for the development of magitechnology. In addition, neither world was aware of the other’s existence, though it was possible to travel between them at their poles, leading to rumours here and there.
Mithos devised a version of the ancient history for each world, glorifying Martel as a goddess, and created the organization of Cruxis, the angels, which oversaw the Church of Martel. Cruxis used Derris-Kharlan as its headquarters. Behind the scenes, Cruxis also controlled the Desians, an organization primarily composed of half-elves that were responsible for wreaking havoc in the declining world and manufacturing ability-augmenting Exspheres. Evolved Exspheres known as Cruxis Crystals allowed Mithos and the other members of Cruxis, also mostly half-elves, to become angels. Mithos had eventually decided to use the Exspheres to turn everyone into lifeless beings in a twisted interpretation of Martel’s wish to end discrimination.
Cruxis sent Oracles to control each world’s mana lineage, from which the Chosen of Mana would be born. The church’s legend stated that the Chosen must go on the Journey of World Regeneration to release the Summon Spirit seals to awaken the spirits, become an angel, and climb the Tower of Salvation to awaken the goddess Martel who would then bless the world with mana once again. In reality, the Chosen’s journey reversed the mana flow, which was how the worlds switched between declining and flourishing. The Chosen’s journey had another secret purpose: once the Chosen became a true angel, their body would be offered as the vessel for Martel. Mithos intended to use this to revive Martel, but the Chosen’s body needed to have a mana signature close enough to Martel’s for it to be successful, hence Cruxis’ control of the Chosen lineages. This process went on for 4000 years. Eventually, one of Mithos' companions, Yuan, began to secretly work against him. Yuan formed the Renegades, who disguised themselves as Desians and tried to assassinate the Chosen to prevent Martel's revival; he also planned to eventually try to germinate the Great Seed.
At the time the story begins, Sylvarant has been in decline for many years and Tethe'alla has flourished a little too long. Almost everyone lives difficult lives in Sylvarant due to mana shortages and attacks by the Desians. Tethe'alla has begun to develop magitechnology and has a large gap between the rich and poor; half-elves are at the bottom of the caste system and largely reviled. The Renegades have also divulged information about the two worlds to the rulers of Tethe'alla and suggested that they have Sylvarant's Chosen assassinated.
Raine’s Backstory
Kloitz was a human dispatched from Meltokio, the centre of Tethe’alla, to investigate Heimdall, the village of the elves. He and an elven woman, Virginia, fell in love and had Raine, their half-elven daughter; eleven years later, they had Genis. Kloitz thus stayed in Heimdall, but a half-elf in the village tried to sell him out to the soldiers (presumably Meltokio’s; this is never specified). This led to a large incident where fighting broke out between the elves and half-elves, and Virginia’s entire family was blamed and subsequently banished from Heimdall. Somehow, the Imperial Research Academy of Sybak became aware of Raine and her high intelligence and wanted to seize her, but half-elf researchers were eternally imprisoned in their laboratories like slaves. The family fled from place to place and at one point boarded a ship, when the pursuers caught up to them. Raine fell overboard into the sea and nearly drowned; the trauma from the incident caused her to maintain a strong fear of water into adulthood. Virginia became desperate to save her children and decided to try sending them through the Otherworldly Gate, one of the poles between worlds, to Sylvarant. She succeeded and fled with Kloitz to Ymir Forest just outside of Heimdall before they collapsed of exhaustion. They were found by the elder of Exire, a hidden half-elf city, who took them in. Kloitz died of an illness and Virginia's mind shattered.
However, it seems that Virginia never explained what she was doing when she sent her children through the gate. Raine was suddenly alone with her infant brother in Sylvarant; she came to believe they were abandoned by Virginia because they were half-elves, though she hid the truth from Genis later on and claimed their parents died. She also didn't realize that there were two different worlds, which isn't wholly surprising since Heimdall kept itself isolated and she likely didn't have the opportunity to learn much about Tethe'alla while they fled from Sybak. Instead, she became obsessed with searching for the few things she remembered from her childhood: Heimdall and the ruin where they were abandoned. This led her to develop a fascination, even fanaticism, with ruins and archaeology. Sylvarant was not that kind to half-elves either, though, and they travelled to many places but had difficulty finding somewhere that they could call home. At some point, Raine decided to have them pose as pureblooded elves since humans could not easily tell the difference by looks alone (elves and half-elves can see mana, but humans cannot). She eventually took some tests to become certified as a teacher, and when she was about 17, they came to the village of Iselia where the current Chosen, Colette, lived. Raine became the schoolteacher there and taught Colette, Lloyd, Genis, and the other children of the village while continuing to pose as an elf, since Iselia’s mayor had contempt for half-elves.
Game Plot
Lloyd, Raine, Genis, and a travelling mercenary named Kratos accompany Colette on the Journey of World Regeneration throughout Sylvarant. They travel to each seal to awaken the Summon Spirit, and Colette gains more angelic powers from the angel Remiel with each seal, though she also begins to give up her humanity in the process. During the journey, they get in scuffles with Desians, Renegades, and Sheena, the assassin sent from Tethe’alla. Sheena eventually joins them to help save people captured by the Desians and tells them what she knows about the two worlds. After the seals have all been released, Colette gives up her memories and heart to become an angel at the Tower of Salvation, but Remiel reveals that she will become Martel’s vessel. Raine also informs the others that becoming an angel means Colette will die, which was kept secret from Lloyd, Genis, and Sheena. They end up fighting Remiel and defeating him, but Kratos is revealed as an angel of Cruxis. The group is saved from Kratos and Yggdrasill by the Renegades, who wanted to prevent Colette from completing the ritual, though they then try to take Lloyd’s special Exsphere. They escape via the Renegades’ Rheairds (magical planes) into Tethe’alla.
They search for a way to save Colette and are joined by Zelos, Tethe’alla’s Chosen; Presea, another girl being used for an Exsphere project; and Regal, an imprisoned Tethe’alla noble. It is during their travels in Tethe’alla that Raine and Genis are revealed as half-elves, though the group more or less accepts them, and Raine rediscovers the Otherworldly Gate and reveals she and Genis were from Tethe’alla. Genis also befriends a half-elven boy who shares the name Mithos with Mithos the Hero, although he is in fact secretly Mithos Yggdrasill. After saving Colette, they come to discover the mana links between the worlds and try to have Sheena, who is a summoner, make pacts with all the Summon Spirits of both worlds in order to sever the mana links and separate the two worlds. The Renegades join forces with them to sever the mana links and fire mana at the Great Seed in an effort to germinate it, but the Great Seed instead goes out of control and wreaks havoc in Sylvarant. Kratos, the Renegades, and Lloyd’s group work together to bring it back under control for the time being, though it is no longer stabilized without the mana links. They return to Iselia, where the truth about Raine and Genis has been revealed to the villagers. The mayor refuses to accept them, but the villagers stand up for them and declare that Iselia will always be a place to which they can return.
Yuan then attempts to force Kratos into releasing Origin’s seal by threatening his son’s—Lloyd’s—life. Yuan’s treachery is discovered by Mithos, though, who reveals his true identity to the party before leaving with Kratos. The party decides to attack Cruxis and Yuan helps them get into the Tower of Salvation, where Zelos betrays the party by separating Colette from the group so she can be captured by angels. As they descend the tower in pursuit, they encounter traps that cause each party member to sacrifice themselves for Lloyd, one at a time*. However, Zelos secretly saves them from the traps before they die, having used the "betrayal" as a ruse to obtain a material needed for the pact with Origin, and they all show up in time to help Lloyd save Colette. Yggdrasill loses his mind after Martel tells him to return the worlds to their original state and twists her request into believing that she wants to take the Great Seed to Derris-Kharlan and leave the world behind. The group defeats him but doesn’t realize his soul lives on in the Cruxis Crystal, which Genis picks up. To release the seal on Origin, Lloyd defeats Kratos in a duel, but Yuan gives Kratos some of his mana to prevent him from dying when he releases the seal. Sheena then makes the pact with Origin, and the Aionis that Zelos obtained is used to forge a ring to allow Lloyd to wield the Eternal Sword, which possesses Origin’s power and is normally only usable by half-elves. Yggdrasill’s soul possesses Colette (or whoever was chosen as Lloyd's soulmate in Flanoir) and takes her to Derris-Kharlan in an effort to take the Great Seed away, so the party pursues to stop him. Everyone but Lloyd is caught in a trap that brings them face to face with their inner darkness and regrets; Raine is confronted by an illusion of her mother telling her that nobody wanted her. Lloyd saves everyone again by encouraging them to overcome the illusions, and Yggdrasill leaves Colette’s body and returns to his own. The group defeats him one last time before breaking his Cruxis Crystal so he can't continue to live on. Lloyd then uses the Eternal Sword to rejoin the worlds and expose the Great Seed to Derris-Kharlan’s mana, allowing it to germinate into a new tree that will supply the regenerated world with mana once again. After everything is over, Raine and Genis travel the world to help half-elves gain acceptance, knowing that they can always return home to Iselia when they want.
Notes
Before Zelos’ betrayal, the player can choose the character with whom Lloyd has a special scene in Flanoir. This does not greatly change the plot unless Kratos is chosen, in which case Zelos betrays the group for real and they kill him, resulting in Kratos being the one to save everyone from the traps and officially rejoin the party after the pact with Origin is made.
In an optional sidequest before everyone’s sacrifices at the Tower of Salvation, Raine’s backstory can be learned by going to Exire and meeting Virginia, who cradles a doll that she calls Raine and doesn’t recognize the real Raine and Genis. Raine learns the truth about their abandonment from her diary. In another optional scene later in the game, they can return to Exire again and Raine plays along with Virginia’s fantasy this time rather than upset her.
Raine may have been in a relationship with someone. She says she is unable to approach the unicorn because she is an "adult". Furthermore, in an optional sidequest, it's revealed that she received the Asgard Ruins' Crown of Earth from someone five years ago. The crown was part of a pair with the Crown of Heaven; Raine says that one is meaningless by itself and then cryptically states "there's no point in clinging to items I received from him....". The person she is referring to is not mentioned anywhere else in the game.