“The Origin of Nyx”, or: Why the cause for everything that’s ever happened in the Persona Series is a hypothetical planet (An Essay)
4.5 Billion years ago, the orbits of two young planets in our solar system crossed, causing them to collide with one another and merge into a single celestial body orbited by a single moon, created from the debris of the impact. The larger of the two original planets is called ‘Gaia’. The smaller planet’s name is ‘Theia’. And the name of the resulting, combined planet is ‘Earth’.
This is the “giant-impact hypothesis”, the currently most popular scientific model to explain the existence of our Moon.
And, according to the lore of Katsura Hashino, the director of Persona 3, 4 and 5, this is also the beginning of the Persona Universe as we currently know it.
Theia is Nyx.
Some of you are probably very confused right now, so please, let me introduce you once more to this lovely volume, called “ペルソナ倶楽部P3”, usually simply referred to as the Persona 3 Club Book. This book, only released in Japan, was written right after Persona 3’s original release in 2006 by Famitsu employees under the instruction and guidance of ATLUS’ Persona team, and consists mostly of character profiles, fan-art, short stories and background information all around the world of the then-newly released Persona3.
However, the last 30 pages of the book are dedicated to the so-called “World Guide”: A in-character Q&A section, responding to some of fans’ most frequent questions about the world and lore surrounding the game, with the information given in it originating from and having been verified by the Persona Team themselves, making it thus canon for all of the Hashino-created Persona games, namely 3,4, 5 and all their spin-off. Naturally, that makes this specific section of the book a goldmine for lore-obsessed nerds like myself, especially because a lot of the ideas touched upon in it, have at best only ever been hinted at in the games proper and to this day not been explored to their fullest at all, if you ask me. The origin of Nyx is one such case.
Even though many players might be tempted to group Nyx in with other “deities” which tend to appear at the very tail end of these games to serve as the final boss, like, for example, Izanami, Mikuratana, Kagutsuchi or Yaldabaoth, the P3 Club Book makes a very clear and sharp distinction between these entities and Nyx and, in fact, does not classify Nyx as a goddess at all! Instead… Umm, wait. Here. I’ll just show you what the book says about that, okay?
What follows is a refined version of my own translation of Page 175 of the book, as I’ve posted it on one of my blogs a while ago.
Q: Could you tell me what Nyx really is, bluntly and unpoetically?
Shuji Ikutsuki: In order to explain this, we need to take a step back and look at our planet’s prehistory first. In ancient times, there existed a gigantic living being, the size of a celestial body, drifting through outer space in a dormant state. We call such a being a “Star Eater”. At a certain point in time, this being collided with a planet which had only just begun to develop its first forms of life - Earth. The chance of this happening was merely one in several Million - no, Billion. In any case, this event was the first contact between Nyx and earth’s lifeforms.
Aigis: So, Nyx was born in extraterrestrial space? It seems miraculous that the planet was not destroyed by this kind of impact.
Ikutsuki: Of course, you are correct. The matter Nyx was composed of existed under physical laws which defy those of earth. Even the mere collision alone brought tremendous results with it. The debris broken off in the shock of the collision entered earth’s orbit and became our moon. As Nyx’ psyche, which exists in a wave-like state, was left behind on earth, her physical body was enclosed in the moon alongside the debris. However, you see, the psyche was the far more problematic part of this being to begin with.
The waves of Nyx’s psyche, which spread across the planet, stood in harsh contradiction with the life already existing on it and threatened to eliminate said life entirely. Of course, the still very primitive, survival-instinct driven lifeforms of earth made attempts to resist these ‘Waves of Death’. As a result of this, the lifeforms of earth entered a period of explosive evolution, and developed coping-strategies to resist Nyx, weapons against her. The crown of this development was a plane of shared information between all living beings on earth, the so-called “Collective Unconscious”.
Aigis: A plane of information…? How exactly could such a thing act as a weapon? Does it contain a form of tremendous power, strong enough to eliminate Nyx?
Ikutsuki: No, no, you misunderstand. You see, the life existing on earth had sealed the energy of Nyx’ psyche within this Collective Unconscious. What acted as the source of power needed to seal this energy were opposing thoughts, such as the desire not to die or the fear of death itself, which suppressed deadly effects of Nyx’ spirit. It is quite the irony of fate that Nyx, who was meant to embody the demise of all life on earth, ended up becoming the catalyst that allowed for earth’s living beings to evolve into lifeforms with complex, sentient psyches. It should be mentioned that the greek goddess “Nyx”, who our Nyx takes her name from, is portrayed as a maternal goddess, embodying a powerful Mother-Archetype. So, you see, the knowledge of the truth that in a way we are all Nyx’ children has probably been with people since old times.
Aigis: It seems very profound.
Ikutsuki: If you think of it like that, my ability to make such clever puns, too, is something we must thank Nyx for.
Aigis: How unforgivable of Nyx.
Burn.
Ahem, anyway…Where to begin?
Firstly, yes, I know, this sounds pretty crazy and you might be inclined to doubt its validity as canon. However, a LOT of stuff from this section of the book did end up eventually being confirmed in the actual games much later down the line, such as the exact relationship between Shadows and Personas, the nature of demons and deities and the uses of the Plume of Dusk aside from being an instant revival item for easy mode. So yes, I think it’s pretty certain that what you just heard is, in fact, not a joke, but an 100% genuine part of the lore.
Nyx was a planet-sized alien being that crashed into Earth, merged its soul with it, and had its body sealed away in the newly created moon. In other words: The Persona Series as it has existed under Katsura Hashino’s direction since Persona 3, uses the “Giant-Impact Hypothesis” as the basis of its cosmology and Nyx is, in fact, the hypothetical planet Thea.
Not a goddess. A planet. With a soul.
(And you thought the penis-shaped alleged aspect of your personality you can summon was the weirdest part of this franchise.)
Now, how is this exactly relevant for any Persona Game beyond P3? I mean, let’s assume you’ve never played P3 and aren’t planning to, you just wanna talk about the lore of the other games. That must means you don’t have to bother with this space-rock nonsense, right? Ha, ha, WRONG.
I’ll spare you another 5 minutes of Ikutsuki’s philosophical waxings, but the book goes on to explain why Nyx is, in fact, responsible, for quite literally every single thing that has ever occurred in the Persona Universe. Because, remember how Ryoji once called Nyx “The mother of all Shadows?” and remember the fact that Shadows, are, in fact, an integral part of all souls in the games, to the point that a human being can’t function without their Shadow?
Well, that’s because, in a sense, all of the characters in the games are Nyx. Not just Pharos. Not just Ryoji. All of them.
That’s because Nyx’ spirit is currently an integral part of the Collective Unconscious. A part that is embodied in the Shadows’ of humans. She IS the Shadows. Her soul has become one with the souls of all living beings on planet earth and created a diverse ecosystem full of creatures that both love their lives and hate them all at the same time!
The Fall, along with the birth of every single malevolent deity to ever exist in the Persona Universe, are the result of the instinctive desire of Nyx’ soul - the Shadow lurking in all souls - to free itself of this prison called earth and return to its original form, destroying all of the life it has created in the process. So in a way, all Malevolent deities representing a humanity’s self-destructive qualities; Erebus, Kagutsuchi, The Snow Queen, Yaldabaoth and even Nyarlathotep are manifestations of Nyx’ desperate cries for freedom.
So you see, no matter where you turn in the Persona Universe, you cannot escape Nyx. She is life. She is death. She is the moon. She is the earth. She is the unconscious, and she is the Shadow of all Shadows.
She is Theia.
Something to think about for the next time you play Persona 3.
