Luminous Arc
The story begins with a video type cutscene featuring the recently
promoted 14-year old Grand Cardinal Johannes along with Cardinal
Kingston and some monks. After that the next scene is of Alph, Theo,
Cecille and Leon. The team are supposed to be training but Leon's
slacking off and keeps trying to hit on Cecille, while Alph and Theo are
training too hard, much to Cecille's exasperation. Heath the ArchKnight
and leader of the Garden Children returns and says that the Garden
Children are finally commissioned to fight Witches and monsters.
Miraculously there happen to be some nearby and citizens crying and
running around in terror.
The next big development is the arrival of Lucia, a supposed maid who
enjoys sweeping but hates actual cleaning. Later that night Alph is
asleep and hears Lucia's voice, they have a conversation then (while
asleep) and Lucia says Alph's a Rym and he goes "What the hell?" and
wakes up. Earlier Lucia said she was sleeping in the forest so he gets
up and goes there. While talking with Lucia, they are attacked by
monsters because Alph forgot to cleanse the monster blood from his
sword, as it attracts more monsters. Lucia uses Light magic, causing
Alph finds out she's a witch but promises not to tell anyone because she
reasons him with being the one who saved his life.
Soon afterwards, Alph's group travel to Carwee, a small town located
south of the Ever Garden. It is here that they meet Andre, who belittles
them for being younger and smaller, and Cardinal Kingston, who causes
Lucia to leave the party in disgust due to his pompous nature and hatred
of Witches. While attempting to reconvene with her, the group runs into
Vanessa, the Witch of Immolation, an impulsive Witch who wields Fire
magic and generally has heated responses to many situations, as shown
when she sets her behemoths on the party, which they defeat. Shortly
after the battle, Vanessa recognizes Lucia, and later attacks her after
she tries to stop her. Alph intercepts the blow, and showing an unusual
amount of power (his brother Theo says "Alph is... glowing?" when he
sees it) turns it aside, saving Lucia and settling their debt.
Afterwards, Lucia tells the party that she is a Witch and disappears
with Mel, another Witch, but one who uses Water magic and has a
hopelessly cheerful disposition.
After splitting up with Heath, the gang meet Saki at the port town of
Ridget. Here, Vanessa appears to have burned the town, but another
Witch used a powerful healing spell to save the citizens, so no one was
hurt at the end of the attack. They then meet Nikolai, an old
acquaintance of the group's who does not get along with Leon, at the
town of Adwest, and encounter Vanessa again shortly afterwards.
Unfortunately, she targets Alph with a strange spell, which Theo
intercepts. When the party travel to Gemarr, they discover that Theo is
turning into a dragon due to Vanessa's curse. The party then travel to
Dotruvar to find the fire Lapistier, and run into Vanessa once again, as
she too seeks the Lapistier. This time, Lucia and Mavi, a Witch who
both wields Earth magic and is a martial arts expert, arrive and attempt
to intercede, much to everyone's surprise. However, their efforts fail
and Vanessa steals the Lapistier. Later in the day, the group ponder
what to do when Lucia turns up, having seemingly sent Mavi ahead without
her, and tells the group that she will guide them to the Witch Village.
The party first travels to a strange forest to the north of Dotruvar.
Here, they meet Vivi, the Witch who masters Wind magic, and find out
about Lucia's intentions: she wishes to help Alph's group undo the spell
Vanessa unintentionally placed on Theo at Adwest. Though Vivi refuses
to join the group at this juncture, she does give the party an item they
need to stop Theo's transformation: a Chronos gem. The party draws
closer to the Witch Village when Mel suddenly reappears. Later, they run
into Andre and Hugo, one of Kingston's subordinates. They attempt to
convince Alph and friends to betray Lucia but fail when Andre reveals
their true intentions: to kill them and the Witches and then take Theo's
arm to Kingston as there are few instances of a Witch's curse. Mel is
enraged when she hears of this, and helps the gang in their effort to
defend Theo and fend off the unscrupulous attack. The Garden Children
are declared traitors after this event, much to Cecille's dismay.
Finally, the party reach the barrier protecting the Lethe Forest. Mel
removes it, and they enter the Witch Village. Cecille feels at ease in
the Village, which she finds strange. The party then meet Claire, the
leader of the Witches who masters Lightning magic. The party is tested
by her, Vivi and Mavi (but strangely, Lucia does not join the battle and
Mel fights alongside the Garden Children) and pass the test, convincing
Claire that the planet has chosen them. The group then catch wind of a
peril to Lucia at a volcano near the village, and so with Vivi in tow
they pursue her. On the way, Alph, Theo, Leon, Cecille, Saki and Nikolai
learn that the planet is possessed of its own sentience: it is able to
sense danger to itself, hence the recent earthquakes. They then find
Lucia surrounded by monsters and rescue her. Fortunately, Lucia has
found the last item they need to reverse Vanessa's spell: a draconic
geode.
Mel then takes the group to see Payan, the great sage of the Lethe
Forest, and his apprentice, Pollon. Shortly afterwards, Theo is cured,
but with an unexpected side effect: he is able to tap into the dragon's
power whenever he needs to. Lucia then tells Alph about the Rym: dragons
who have formed a connection with Witches, and are thus stronger than
ordinary dragons. She also tells him that the god of the Luminous Church
will kill the planet if allowed to awaken, and one purpose of the
Witches and the dragons is to stop him from doing this. The next day,
Vanessa tries to steal the village Lapistier: she mentions to Claire
that something odd is happening at the southern town of Jeidath,
something which should not happen. Fortunately, the party turn up and
dissuade her from this course: however, she goes to Jeidath without the
Lapistier, which is cause for Mavi and Pollon to tag along with the
group: so they may stop her from leveling the town and putting many
innocent people in unnecessary danger.
Sadly, the group arrive too late to stop Jeidath from being leveled.
They find Vanessa and automatically jump to conclusions, sparking
another confrontation. The battle is interrupted, however, by Kingston's
sudden appearance. He has a girl with her, whom he introduces as Iris,
the Steel Witch. This girl has Rune in her body and thus possesses the
powers of a Witch: she has the Thunder Lapistier in her heartt, much to
Saki's disbelief. It was this girl, and not Vanessa, who destroyed the
laboratory. Another battle ensues, this time with Vanessa assisting
Alph's group. After defeating the Steel Witch, she unleashes her full
power, but Vanessa and Mel teleport the group to safety.
The group travel to ruins located north of Jeidath. En route, they
run into Heath, but he attacks the group to Alph's dismay. Fortunately, a
survivor of the Eurus Knights, named Kai, joins the expanding party,
though Lucia leaves. The group are then found by Andre. He reveals
himself to be the killer of Leon's father. This is cause for Leon to
break away from the group as he wishes to avenge his father. Upon
reaching the ruins the party are found by Claire. They then find Lucia,
but she is in dire straits: the Steel Witch has found her and she is no
match for her alone. Alph rushes to Lucia's side, and then awakens as a
Rym Hero: he is now able to tap into his draconic power. Alph and Theo's
stones fuse into one, giving Alph more power. With this strength,
Alph's group sends the Steel Witch packing. Claire then reveals the
stone Alph now holds to be the Light Lapistier, which had broken into
two pieces, which Alph and Theo had been holding the whole time,
something Vanessa never realised. The group then decide to return to the
Witch Village.
Characters
The
anime
inspired chararacter designs are by Kaito Shibano, an illustrator for
PC games and trading cards. Shibano said that he made the designs bright
and with a light feel to brush off the stereotype of witches being
gloomy.
[4]
The Garden Children are a special group of warriors trained by the
Arc Knight Heath to fight monsters and condemn the Witches that have
reappeared in the world after being sealed for a thousand years.
[12]
The Garden Children get their name from the Ever Garden, where a
majority of them have been living for most of their lives. The Ever
Garden was founded 14 years before the game's story begins, in the same
year that the Grand Cardinal Johannes was born. It was the last wish of
the former Grand Cardinal that a group of humans be established to fight
against the Witches, whose rebirth he foresaw.
[12]
Each member of the group has special abilities that make him or her
useful in combat, ranging from swordfighting and archery skills to the
use of Church-approved magic.
According to the scriptures of the Luminous Church, the Witches and
the Dragons fought an unending war until God descended from heaven and
sealed them away. The Witches have a mysterious and innate power known
only as Rune,
[13]
and they use this power to cast unholy magic and cause chaos in the
world. As they are always in competition with one another, the Witches
want nothing more than to develop their abilities, and travel around the
world looking for Lapistier, magic stones that feed on God's power and
can amplify a Witch's power to terrifying levels.
[14]
As such, it is up to special agents of the Luminous Church to travel
around the world and condemn Witches and transport the Lapistier to the
Church in order to have them cleansed of their evil energy.
The Witches themselves have a completely different philosophy. Born
from a rainbow-colored stone called the Mother Lapis, Witches are born
whenever the planet is in danger, and are then reabsorbed into the
crystal when the threat has been extinguished.
[15]
However, it also appears that the Earth has the ability to call back
Witches who do not take their function seriously, as long as the
different Runes are kept in balance.
[16] Indeed, Witches "represent the natural elements of the planet,"
[17]
and gather together to pool their powers in the war against what has
become the God of the Luminous Church. Witches use the Lapistier not to
boost their destructive power, but to fill themselves up with the energy
of the earth itself when the time comes to fight.
[18]
This group of Witches seems to have developed differently from those of
the past, as they have all developed their own philosophies and battle
styles.
[19][20] it is really a great game but i dont love the game i just love the story