Karma (Digital Devil Saga)

This article is about the concept. For the Mantra, see Mantras in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner or Mantras in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2. For other uses, see Karma.

Karma is a concept in the Digital Devil Saga series.

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In the Digital Devil Saga games, Karma is the equivalent of Experience. It is described as the sum of one's deeds and a source of strength derived from hunting demons.

In the Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner novels, karma is a concept primarily in the Junkyard, where it is equated with the sins one commits in battle. Once a combatant dies, they are later reborn as Newborns in accordance with the Samsara system, where the production facility within Sahasrara cleanses their karma, creating a clean slate.

Novel Appearances

Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner I

The doctrine of the Church of the Arbiters of Karma dictates that the Junkyard's dead become rainwater within three days, flowing to the temple in Sahasrara. The rainwater's karma, being the sins the dead had committed in battle, is purified, then the water is shaped into a new human. These humans are called Newborns, and serve as blank slates to be sought by existing tribes or to ally themselves with other Newborns to conquer a territory and form their own tribe. Though, with the introduction of Atma to the Junkyard, Serph becomes concerned with the devouring of corpses, which would prevent them from becoming rainwater, thus starving the Church of supplies to make Newborns.

Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner II

Once the Samsara system is unable to filter out the aspects of the Junkyard's denizens that they acquired alongside their Atma, a black mass of karma forms, containing the emotions of those who had fallen in battle, driven by hunger and the memories of the dead. Of these, its first and most prominent memory is of Harley Q's death, to the point that merely remembering Serph causes it pain, anger and hunger. The karmic amalgamation first attacks Vishuddha, compounding on the attack on the Wolves by Ravana and nearly wiping out the entire tribe, save for some survivors who escaped through the newly-discovered sewers. While traveling to Vishuddha via the sewers, Serph, Heat and Lupa encounter a piece of the abomination, taking the form of one of the Wolves it had absorbed, and the three destroy it completely.

Later, it attacks the Embryon's territory, destroying the Anahata and Manipura, which Gale and Cielo barely manage to escape. During its attack, its body shifted to resemble the faces of many of the people it now consisted of, including Harley Q. The squad in Sahasrara also encounters it in the Newborn production facility and barely manage to escape, though it later appears near the top of the tower. Lupa and Jinana, recognizing that the Wolves and Maribel have entirely fallen to the abomination, sacrifice themselves to delay it from reaching the Embryon.

The karmic abomination is destroyed alongside the entirety of the Junkyard once Shin Minase and Sera leave it.

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
English	Karma
Japanese	カルマ Karuma	Karma
Korean	카르마