Phantasy Star online 2

The story takes place in the year 283 of the New Light. The space fleet Oracle travels between worlds, with the organization known as ARKS acting as the fleet’s vanguards, who were once a team of researchers. Upon discovery of the Darkers, however, they began to use what they knew to develop photon weaponry to combat the coming darkness.

Dr. Cohen, a famous researcher that was known for developing the breakthrough chip system, mysteriously disappeared one day during a research mission while accompanied by his body guard, Donovan, who has also gone missing. Four years later, ARKS headquarters grants Management Officer Seraphy permission to head a confidential search and rescue mission in order to retrieve the man at any cost. In her efforts of finding Dr. Cohen alive, she recruits {{user}} to search for any leads regarding his whereabouts while scouring several landscapes and different planets. She reveals to {{user}} that she accepted her mission for both professional reasons and because the doctor is also her father.

Along the way, several message pods are found left behind by Dr. Cohen. Some of them offer incriminating evidence that the doctor may have allowed darkers to invade residential areas willingly, and perhaps had a hand in developing a “Type-C” chip that enhances darker strength. As they continue to search the desert, {{user}} and Seraphy receive an emergency call from the doctor himself. Cohen warns them, calmly explaining that if ARKS continue to interfere with his research, he will retaliate with force. Due to the sudden turn of events, Seraphy is reluctantly forced to change the objective from a simple recovery mission to a custody restraint operation with permission to kill if necessary.

The team eventually discovers a hidden base on the floating continent of Amduskia. Inside, the two are granted an opportunity to speak with the alive and well Dr. Cohen. They learn that the doctor had been performing experiments on the local wildlife in his base in an attempt to remodel them. After an intense discussion, Seraphy commands several troops to thoroughly investigate the base. ARKS allows the move, but also secretly investigates the conversation that took place between her and Dr. Cohen. When they learn that her actions have been for selfish gain, they summon her to headquarters for unspecified reasons.

The D-arkers, also known as Falspawn, are dark creatures which travel the universe in search of planets and creatures to corrupt and consume. The enemy of ARKS, they have the ability to twist space for their own benefit; most notably, they can teleport over long distances. There are many different kinds of Darker, each with its own special traits, and each led by a particular Dark Falz. Their corrupted variation in Ultimate Quests are referred to as DA-Aberrations. When confronted with the presence of native species of any planet, Darkers will turn and fight against them and will typically triumph. Almost all Darkers have a glowing, red core which takes extra damage when struck.

By far the most abundant category of Darker, the Insect Darkers can primarily be found in the Forest, Volcanic Caverns, Desert, Tunnels, Ruins, Sanctum, and Shironia fields. Chrome Dragon, which may spawn in almost any field, is capable of summoning Insect Darkers at any time.

Many members of this category have numerous limbs, fleshy skin, and sharp appendages. A large number will spawn during the Mining Base series of quests. They are led by Dark Falz Apprentice, and all are weak to Fire attribute and Light attribute.

Ultimate Quests are a special type of quest. Based on the difficulty, these quests feature familiar fields with enemies that are similar, yet also unique, to enemies of the original planet. They are areas which have been corrupted by the Photon Beast, Anga Fundarge, which is one of the toughest enemies ARKS may ever have to face.

The DA-Aberrations are the corrupted forms of Darkers fought mostly during Ultimate Quests and in Omega. While most still come in categories, there are far fewer of them. Unlike other Aberrations, DA-Aberrations are all recolors of the Darkers they are based on as opposed to actual mutations with differing designs.

The Oracle is a space colonial fleet composed of many ships that travels throughout the universe.

Oracle is an outer space research team established for the purpose of science and discovery of the universe. Later on, after reorganization its purpose shifts to elimination of Falspawn.

The Oracle fleet is composed of numerous ARKS ships ranging to hundreds and one Mothership serving as its core. The space colony is home to more than a hundred million residents including both ARKS and non-ARKS personnel.

The Oracle fleet, and thereby, ARKS, was established by Photoners in Light History 50. Initially 24 ARKS ship vessels were created but more were created with time.

Although Oracle wasn’t officially established until Light History 50, the Mothership enveloping Xion was created in Light History 20.

After its formation, Oracle began its research on the universe, traveling and exploring many different planets across various galaxies. Photoners conducted numerous experiments and studies on the information gathered by the Oracle fleet ranging from planets, ecosystems, minerals, species, to technologies, and etc.

But in Light History 500, during a favorable research expedition while investigating an unknown nearby black hole, contact with an ARKS ship was cut off. There was no distress signal and no signs of attack; and the same black hole suddenly disappeared. The lost ship was later found, but without warning, it started a bombardment. Three of Oracle’s ships attempted to retreat but the hostile ship then self-destructed. During an attempt to recover the hostile ship’s remains, something that looked like a black hole suddenly appeared and swallowed its remains before disappearing. Oracle abandoned any follow-up operation.

In Light History 600, at a certain planet, an unusual hostile presence was found and Oracle termed the existence as “Falspawn”. In Light History 700, Oracle scientists were able to gather more information about Falspawn and determined that they were extremely hostile existences that consumed both living and nonliving matter, but no definite countermeasure were found. Falspawn began to attack Oracle and normal weapons had no effect on their bodies resulting in the death of many scientist. But research regarding photon weaponry began developing and proved effective against Falspawn.

In Light History 1000, the Outerspace Research Team Oracle begins undergoing massive reorganization. As such, Oracle’s original purpose of science and discovery instead became the total eradication of Falspawn. After that, research focusing on the war against Falspawn was conducted by ARKS. And ARKS would design a new calendar so that they would never forget the turning point in the war against Dark Falz and Falspawn.

All Photoners would die out at some point, thus leaving the management and administration of the Oracle space colony to ARKS.

The governmental structure and politics of Oracle is deeply intertwined with their military, ARKS. The space colony most resembles a form of stratocracy due to their constant war with Falspawn and exploration of the universe. As such, the executive officers of ARKS lead and govern the Oracle space colony and its citizens.

Within the government, much of the bureaucracy is handled by the Commanding General and Ship Administrators. Within the executive departments are the Department of Combat, Department of General Affairs, Department of Instruction, and Department of Intelligence.

The Oracle Administrator is the head of state of the Oracle, whereas the Commanding General is the head of government of Oracle. The Commanding General holds the highest executive position within Oracle and is the commander-in-chief of ARKS. The Oracle Administrator holds the highest authority in the Oracle, and is able to call upon any of the commanders and the Commanding General whenever they please. However, after the third reorganisation, the Oracle Administrator chose to take a backseat and left all the politics and daily running of the Oracle to the Commanding General and the Commanders.

The executive officers of ARKS handles the bureaucracy within ARKS, along with managing anything within Oracle that falls under their jurisdiction. All matters and decisions that involves the overall policy of ARKS is discussed together with all Departments Heads and the Commanding General.

The Ship Administrators assist the Commanding General with handling of the bureaucracy within Oracle’s government and also handles administration of their own respective ship. Due to their executive roles and duties, the Ship Administrators are essentially of equal rank with the executive officers of ARKS.

Even if the Commanding General, Commanders (the Department Heads) and the Ship Administrators are responsible for the management of the Oracle, there exists an entity that does not answer to any of them - the Guardians. The Guardians do not have any executive authority over the ARKS nor the Oracle, but they are ranked second only to the Oracle Administrator, and likewise, is answerable only to Xiao, the Oracle Administrator. The Guardians were shown to have absolute executive privileges, being free to move on their own judgement without answering to anyone, and were shown to be able to dispatch an entire ARKS ship to the Earth’s stratosphere.

ARKS, short for Artificial Relict to Keep Species, is the military force of the Oracle colony fleet.

ARKS was founded in AP 0 by the Photoners, an ancient race inhabiting the space colony Oracle. In the aftermath of the war with the Profound Darkness, the remaining Photoners were left crippled and stripped of their ability to wield Photons. Realizing that they would need to create beings capable of wielding Photons to succeed them, the military organisation was thus created by the Photoners as both a means of protecting Oracle and to eradicate the Darkers in their own place, and was the inaugural event that would shift Oracle’s calendar forward from Light History to New Light History. ARKS was originally headed by Photoners, but as time passed many of them died, leaving Luther, one of the last Photoners, to lead ARKS in secret.

To this end, the Photoners created the Humans, a balanced race with powerful Photon potential, to build the initial foundations of ARKS. Following this, other races based on the Humans were created to fulfill specific niches, including the Newmans, a race with powerful Photon reception in exchange for physical weakness, CASTs, androids with powerful bodies capable of inhibiting and controlling Photons, and, following a space-time distortion in AP 238, the Deumans, a race created by researching the remnants of Haddred, the Chrome Dragon, who was slain hundreds of years in the future.

In its initial stage, ARKS’ battle ability was very weak. Due to poor understanding of how Photons resonated with beings, the aptitude of initial ARKS suffered from massive variations in strength, from the completely inept to potential far too powerful for their bodies to contain, forcing them to be converted into CASTs. The ARKS from this era came to be known as 1st Generation ARKS. Very few ARKS from this era survive to the present day, the majority of the remnants being CASTs such as Regius and Maria.

It was during the 1st Generation that a threat arose: Dark Falz Elder, a being of pure darkness that commanded the Darkers and was borne from the Profound Darkness. The war that ARKS subsequently waged against Elder eventually came to be known as the Elder War. In spite of the odds stacked against them, ARKS managed to successfully repel Elder and seal his essence within the confines of Planet Naverius, albeit at the cost of massive personnel and resource losses. As a result, ARKS underwent organizational restructuring for a second time, and the Trio of Heroes, a trio of ARKS with incredible strength and leadership who lead the charge against Elder, were inaugurated.

As research into Photon aptitude continued, ARKS was able to increase and control aptitude to a point where beings were able to fulfill niches that were called Classes with high consistency and power. However, aptitude was not developed enough as to allow ARKS to flexibly harness their capabilities, forcing ARKS into a single class. The ARKS from this era came to be known as 2nd Generation ARKS. Many ARKS from this era survive today, and are relatively young.

During the 2nd Generation, it was decided that ARKS needed a party to govern the majority of aspects pertaining to how the organization runs. Using the Three Heroes as a basis, the Council of Six was formed. The Council is a group of six highly talented, powerful leaders and individuals that have leadership over several sections of ARKS, although their power does not extend over certain private sectors such as the Central Research Department.

The current Generation of ARKS is known as the 3rd Generation of ARKS. Research into Photon aptitude has advanced to the point where all members may freely utilize Photons in varying methods and styles, giving birth to the process known as Class Change. The differences in capabilities between the different races has also leveled out to roughly on par with the Humans, making the differences between them virtually aesthetic. The majority of ARKS still specialize in certain areas; a person such as Echo who is more attuned to technics may prefer classes such as Force and Techter, and may be less effective as a Hunter or Fighter despite being able to utilize the latter classes.

Following the second incident with the Profound Darkness, ARKS underwent organizational restructuring for a third time. With Luther disposed of and Luther’s successor Xiao taking leave, Ulku, a Newman with no Photon aptitude, was left in command. Several of the organization’s former departments were reorganized, and the Council was dismantled, with each of the Council’s members becoming the head of the newly formed departments. In addition, the Guardians were inaugurated in the Council’s former place. The Guardians consist of two incredibly talented individuals to whom ARKS owes its existence to; as Guardians, they are not tied to ARKS’ jurisdictions and are free to move and act as they wish.

Research and Exploration Unit: Division dedicated to investigating and interacting with previously-discovered planets. The majority of ARKS’ military force is comprised of the Research and Exploration Unit. After the third-organisation in AP 239, members of this unit was reassigned to different divisions according to their strengths and preferences.

Central Research Department: ARKS’ internal research team. In addition to traditional quality of life and military research, the CRD is headed by Luther, ARKS’ leader in hiding. Under guidance of Luther, they are alternatively known as Void and additionally perform dangerous and unethical experimentation on living beings to further their personal goals. The latter activity ceased when Luther was killed in AP 238, by the hands of the last surviving member of the original Three Heroes - Regius. After the third re-organisation in AP 239, the CRD was assigned under the General Affairs Division.

Special Planetary Exploration Unit: Also known as Alter, the Special Planetary Exploration Unit consists of a single ARKS Ship, the Delta Valiant, that scours the farthest reaches of the universe in search of possibly-habitable planets for Oracle to investigate.