User:RaccoonPestic/Sandbox

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The RaccoonPestic/Sandbox is a plan devised to bring forth the appearance of a Messiah in Shin Megami Tensei II.

Profile

According to Messian teaching, the Millennium Kingdom, a reality where humanity will experience everlasting peace on Earth, will be completed once God sends a Messiah to the people to guide them to its creation. Supposedly, this promised Messiah was meant to appear after Tokyo Millennium was constructed, but despite this, even after Tokyo Millennium was completed, the Messiah never appeared. The Center Elders became perplexed by this, and unwilling to wait any longer for God to send a Messiah Himself, convinced themselves that it would be acceptable to create their own Messiah, with their efforts to bring about this culminating in the creation of the Messiah Project.

Participants

• Center Elders (Administrators)
• Center Bishop (Supervisor)
• Mekata (Head Scientist)
• Hanada (Scientist)
• Hiroko (Messiah's surrogate)
• Aleph (Messiah)
• Beth (Messiah's partner)
• Daleth (False-Messiah)
• Gimel (Virtual Messiah)
• Zayin (Messiah's guardian)

Game Appearances

Shin Megami Tensei II

After determining each of the steps they would have to follow to create the Messiah, which would mimic the circumstances of a previous Messiah, the Center gathered a wide array of scientists, among them being the scientists Mekata and Hanada. Through the use of biotechnology such as accelerated breeding, they created five beings from eggs. These eggs were strengthened and placed in vats to speed up their growth to whatever age the Center deemed suitable to fulfill the next phase of their plan, though the survival rate for the eggs that underwent the accelerated growth was not guaranteed. This was of no concern to the Center however, and they continued on unimpeded regardless of the implied sacrifices.

At the core of the project was the Messiah, who was to be named Aleph. His creation would differ from the other artificial humans in that he would be created through the use of in vitro fertilization, being a strengthened, fertilized egg that would be inserted into the body of a strong woman who would serve as the egg's surrogate. This woman would be chosen from a worthy family from the Center under the guise that she was participating in an experiment aiming to improve the declining birth rates after the Great Cataclysm. After the woman brought the child to term and gave birth to him, he would then be placed in a vat to age him up to adulthood within days.

It was decided that the Messiah would have a partner similar to how the Hero had been accompanied by a faithful partner of his own,^{[citation needed]} so the creation of Beth followed. As Beth was created solely to fulfill the role of the Messiah's companion, her mentality was crafted to place the Messiah's wellbeing at the center of her existence, a purpose she was meant to put before even her own life. All other loyalties were to be considered second to her extreme dedication to the Messiah, though the Center was convinced that this would not pose as a problem.

To conduct more tests for the Millennium Kingdom, a third person was created for the project, Gimel. By using virtual reality technology, the Center constructed a simulation that would serve as a test case for what the Millennium Kingdom would look like and called it Arcadia, presenting it as a new district that was free from demonic threats or conflicts between people. After hand-picking citizens from the Center to serve as Arcadia's inhabitants, Gimel was to be implemented as the district's administrator and stand-in Messiah. Although its appearance was that of a utopia, however, the true Arcadia was in actuality a small facility where each of the Arcadian residents were strapped to chairs and hooked up to machines that would project their avatars into the simulation, with them being none of the wiser of the reality of their situation. The real Gimel is stationed at the facility as well, willingly committed to maintaining the state of the simulation as he shares the Center's extremist views, and operates under the logic that regardless of Arcadia being a lie, it is an acceptable one as it gives people the peace they desire.

As the Messiah would eventually have to gain the respect and admiration of the people, a sacrificial tool in the form of a False-Messiah was created. Giving him the name Daleth, this False-Messiah was meant to be defeated by the Messiah, with the spectacle of the fight serving to increase the latter's popularity. To make the conflict that would spark between the two Messiahs seem authentic, Daleth was first aged up to childhood to make him more susceptible to manipulation and then trained to develop his combat skills. He would also be made to attend lectures held by the Center Bishop that centered around the prophecy about the Messiah, which in reality was fabricated by the Center, where the Bishop would make sure to impress upon Daleth the idea that he himself was the Messiah. Daleth would soon be aged up to adulthood and be told about the final part of the Messiah's prophecy, in which after the Messiah emerged from the wilderness to help the people, the False-Messiah would appear to challenge the true Messiah for his own personal interests. The two would fight and the true Messiah would prevail, completing the prophecy. This causes Daleth to view the False-Messiah's defeat as his ultimate goal, convincing him to finally escape the Center to follow in the prophecy's footsteps, unknowingly acting according to the Messiah Project's grand plan. As an extra precaution, Daleth was also monitored to ensure that he would survive until the time came for him to be defeated by the Messiah.

The fifth and final member of the Messiah Project was Zayin, who, created with the most power out of all the artificial creations, was meant to be the Messiah's guardian.

Eventually, Mekata grew disturbed with the Messiah Project and decided to rebel against it, working with fellow scientist Hanada, who was tired of his research being restricted by the Center, to sabotage it. They took Aleph and wiped the fake memories the Center had implanted him with, and were planning to do the same with the other experiments, but were unable to reach them before the Center discovered their scheme, forcing them to cut their losses and escape only with Aleph in tow.

Trivia

• Each person created as part of the Messiah Project is named after Hebrew letters, which are meant to be code names for them.
• There were originally meant to be two other Messiah Project creations named after the 5th and 6th letters of the Hebrew alphabet. However, they were said to have been lost in a failed experiment and were "eaten" by Zayin.

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	メシア・プロジェクト	Messiah Project

Gallery

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  Sprite of a male Messiah Project subject in a vat.

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  Sprite of a female Messiah Project subject in a vat.