Mem Aleph
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| Mem Aleph | |
| メムアレフ | |
Artwork from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey | |
| Origin | Barbara G. Walker |
| Race(s) | Mother Empty |
| Alignment(s) | Light-Neutral Shin Megami Tensei: Strange JourneyNeutral-Neutral Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Empty formLight-Chaos Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux Mother formDark-Chaos Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux Empty form
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| Voice Actor(s) | Sayaka Ohara |
Mem Aleph is a Demon in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.
Profile
Origin
Mem Aleph is a concept taken from Barbara G. Walker's books, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. These two books largely center around explaining the history of human society through a feminist lens, arguing that all religion around the world is rooted in the belief of a Great Mother Goddess. Walker's work has been heavily criticized for not accurately reflecting her cited sources and should not be considered historically accurate.
Walker claimed that Mem Aleph was derived from a Persian goddess she called Mourdad-Ameretat.[1] In actuality, Mourdad and Ameretat are simply the Persian and Avestan forms of the same name, and do not appear together as a hyphenated term.
Design
She appears as a woman lying on her side, with entirely golden skin and a strapless dress of the same color. She has black hair that somewhat resembles an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh headdress with matching black lips, and an open third eye on her forehead. Behind her upper torso and head are two intricate wheels, both of which have rods extruding from them. Her overall appearance gives off the aura of regalness and resembles something that would be seen in ancient Japanese artwork.
In her Empty form, Mem Aleph is reduced to an embryo with an exposed brain, an emphasized spine that goes down to form a tail, and limbs that lack any opposable digits. She floats in the fetal position surrounded by a blue membrane, presumably made of water as it produces bubbles, which is in turn surrounded by various lines resembling the paths electrons make around atoms.
Gameplay
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Compendium
| Compendium Entries | |
|---|---|
| Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux |
Mother Mother spirit in representation of what Earth once was. Central being of Schwarzwelt. Mem Aleph is not a name of a specific demon, but a name derived from MA: in Hebrew, M, phonetically read mem, represents water, and A, read aleph, represents beginning. Globally, the word for "mother" shares the phonetic sound MA. When the Schwarzwelt is released upon Earth, she will become the "Mother" of all beings. Empty The bare power of Mem Aleph, achieved by abandoning everything as a Mother. Void of her motherly form, void of her advanced knowledge, and void of her future - it now has the power to reduce its enemies to less than a dust of spirit.
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Game Appearances
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)
Mem Aleph is the great mother goddess ruling the Schwarzwelt and all the demons within it, first mentioned by Arthur after being sent information from the Three Wise Men, who simply says that she is an entity residing at the center of the Schwarzwelt. Gore also mentions her in Sector Grus, and she again is mentioned by Maya as she dies, and Arthur uses the information given by Gore to determine she is the final Mother the Red Sprite crew must face, located in Sector Horologium. At the start of the sector, Gore takes the Protagonist to her domain to give him a glimpse of her, though his Demonica just registers her form as blue static, her fluctuating energy preventing those who lack the proper power to comprehend her appearance. Gore reveals that though she was once the mother who birthed humanity, she now curses them as a mother of destruction, whose rage can only be satisfied with their cleansing.
On the Chaos route, the Protagonist joins Mem Aleph's cause and is sent back to her domain to meet her formally. Pleased with him, she blows her breath onto him, imbuing him with the ability to see her, and then forgives him and Jimenez for their actions in the Schwarzwelt, believing all of it has served to strengthen them into soldiers who will help her reshape the world. She proceeds to explain that their true goal is not only to get the Schwarzwelt to cleanse the Earth of the current humanity causing its decay, but also to use the power of the Cosmic Eggs she created to reshape the Earth into what she describes as a paradise of demons and true humans. Though she had given the Cosmic Eggs to some demons invading Earth, they became scattered, with some falling into the possession of the opposing angels, so she tasks the Protagonist with collecting and bringing them back to her.
On the Neutral route, Gore gives the Protagonist the last vestiges of his power, granting him the ability to see Mem Aleph, and gives Arthur instructions for destroying the Schwarzwelt, which involves taking the Cosmic Eggs and defeating her for the final Exotic Matter she holds. Similarly, on the Law route, the Protagonist is also tasked with defeating Mem Aleph and collecting her Exotic Matter and Cosmic Eggs, though here it is to harness their power to create the angels' ideal world. After collecting the Cosmic Eggs on each route, demons serving Mem Aleph, or an angel on the Chaos route, destroy the elevator leading to Mem Aleph, making the Protagonist take the long way to reach her.
On the Law route, after Jimenez is defeated and dying, he speaks out for Mem Aleph, wishing for her to defeat their enemies and resurrect him as a full demon.
On the Law and Neutral routes, the Protagonist reaches Mem Aleph's domain to defeat her, though on the Law route, Zelenin must sing to make Mem Aleph visible to him. Shocked at the series of events, she attributes the song's power to the work of the Three Wise Men and curses them for daring to forget their obligation. She also curses the Protagonist for following the God of law, claiming that he is walking a path of death instead of revival, and unwilling to allow the Earth to be shackled by God's order, attacks the Protagonist. On the Neutral route, Mem Aleph berates humanity for falling from grace, likening them to viruses that destroy the Earth and determining that no trace of the old humanity that had walked alongside demonkind remained in them. As they have become lost souls, oblivious to the gods of old and have mistaken themselves as the center of creation, Mem Aleph proclaims herself as she who remembers and speaks for the Earth and attacks the Protagonist to prevent its destruction. After some fighting, the Protagonist supposedly defeats her, but then the area begins to distort as Mem Aleph, desperate to defeat him, casts off her form, reason, and future, to become Empty Mem Aleph, described to be her true form and naked power incarnate, devoid of any desire other than to kill the Protagonist and disappear into the air. The Protagonist is still able to defeat her, however, with her words varying depending on the route. On the Law route, she laments how the Earth will be stolen by the God of Law and how life will end, and on the Neutral route, she is incredulous at the Protagonist's power but futiley insists that he cannot create a future, then dropping the final Exotic Matter and disappearing after she offers these final words.
On the Chaos route, the Protagonist and Jimenez successfully return to Mem Aleph, who congratulates them on bringing the Cosmic Eggs back to her. She goes on to speak about how the humans who have disrespected the Earth will soon be eradicated, and that humans will soon regain their true and vibrant selves. When this happens, demons will regain their beauty, as she believes that once humans are beautiful, so too will demons be, as she claims that the two races are as opposite sides of a mirror. She proceeds to give the two soldiers their final orders, directing them to go to the Vanishing Point to unleash the Cosmic Eggs' power onto the Earth and reconstruct it into their ideal world, then entrusts them with her Exotic Matter, confusing Jimenez on why she does not unleash the power herself. Mem Aleph explains that she still has one more thing to accomplish and reveals that she will disappear, though she reassures them that this will be temporary, promising that when the Earth has been restored, she will be there, and then crumbles into pieces to become the last of the Cosmic Eggs' energy.
In the Chaos ending, at the Vanishing Point, Mem Aleph's voice resounds to encourage the Protagonist to bestow the power of the Schwarzwelt and the Cosmic Eggs onto the Earth, which she describes as crying out in pain, and repeats that in the new world, she will be with him.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
- This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)
If the Protagonist is on the Chaos route and has agreed change the future, he and Jimenez will suggest to Mem Aleph that the world they are trying to create lacks "possibility", though this disappoints her, as she denounces possibility as only breeding corruption and what has led to the demons' lowly state, maintaining that the only thing the world needs is beauty. When Jimenez continues to try and convince her, Mem Aleph becomes fed up with him and the Protagonist and attacks them, promising to revive them as full demons after their deaths. Upon her defeat, she denies their ability to create a future despite their power and disappears.
- End of spoilers.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
A statue of Mem Aleph is worshipped by members of the Ring of Gaea in Tsukiji Hongwanji.
Trivia
- Neither of Mem Aleph's forms can be recruited as a demon normally. They can however be obtained via Demon Compendium Passwords in the original version of Strange Journey.
- Despite her role in the story indicating her Chaotic disposition, in the original Strange Journey, Mem Aleph's alignment during battle is listed as Neutral. This was changed in Strange Journey Redux.
- In the original Strange Journey, when entering Mem Aleph's domain for the first time, she appears as blue static like seen with unregistered demons. This was changed in Strange Journey Redux, where her form, though still tinted blue and static-like, resembles her true form more closely.
- In Strange Journey Redux's New Chaos route, Mem Aleph's final words are the same as they are in the game's Neutral route.
Nomenclature
Her name comes from the Hebrew letters מ (m) and א (a), which are claimed by Barbara Walker to represent "water" and "the beginning" respectively, in reference to the mother goddess Ma in Cappadocia culture.[1]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
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 English
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Mem Aleph | |
 Japanese
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メムアレフ Memuarefu | Mem Aleph |
Gallery
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Artwork of Mem Aleph's Mother form from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey -
Artwork of Mem Aleph's Empty form from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey -
Sprite from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey -
Portrait graphic of Mem Aleph's Mother form from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey -
Portrait graphic of Mem Aleph's Empty form from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey -
Mem Aleph being worshipped by the Ring of Gaea in Shin Megami Tensei IV
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Hebrew letters MA, the Mother-charm signifying "water" and "the beginning," written on protective amulets of the 9th century B.C.¹ The magic name of the Great Goddess Ma. A concept borrowed from the Persians, who called the maternal spirit Mourdad-Ameretat (MA: Death-Rebirth)." [1]. Retrieved February 22, 2024. Twitter.