The Nisan Creed...

The beliefs of Nisan center around the human spirit, and to a lesser extent, God. The religion was founded by a woman named Sophia (For more information on her, you can see either The Contact and the Anti-Type, or The Rise of Nisan - but these pages are loaded with spoilers! Go at your own risk.) before the great war between Solaris and Nisan five hundred years ago. Although she died at the end of that war, her legacy lives on in the form of the Nisan Cathedral, and even today Sophia is revered as a saint. What was it that drew millions to Nisan five hundred years ago? Well...... Sophia's teachings were quite different from those of the Ethos, or other traditional religious organizations. While those focused on worshipping god, Sophia's teachings taught self-dependance, and a strength of spirit that saw them through a war with Solaris. God was still their central figure of worship, but the teachings of Nisan revolve around the saying "god helps those who help themselves" -- or so I would think. "We should pray...... not to god, but to the part of him we all carry in our hearts." - is a good example of their balance of religion and spiritual strength. Another of Nisan's beliefs - more like a legend, actually - revolves around the pair of angels that hang above the altar in the cathedral. (The quotes below are taken directly from the script of Xenogears. They've been edited a bit to fit the subject, but there are no other changes.) Margie: Did you notice that two great angels only have one wing each......? According to a legend handed down in Nisan... God could have created humans perfectly... But then, humans would not have helped each other... So that is what these great single winged angels symbolize... In order to fly, they are dependent on one another. Citan: Ah, so that is the reason for it. I see... On further inspection, the left angel looks somewhat masculine... while the right one looks somewhat feminine. Now that is an unusual feature, is it not? ......These angels are clearly distinguishable as having opposing genders. And the space between them is the path from where god advents... Or could it be the path leading to god......? Naturally, this city/country is dedicated to peace, and no longer has a military. As far as political significance goes...... Nisan is more like a city-state than a country. It's supposed to be a part of Aveh, but when Shakhan took over the citizens revolted and have stood against Aveh and Gebler ever since. Bart is, of course, always welcome. ^_^ One nice little tradition they seem to be sticking to is the marriage between the ruler of Aveh and the Mother of the Nisan sect...... But I think I've already commented on Bart and Margie, haven't I? ^_~

Parallels to Real-world Religions...

This one isn't as difficult as the Ethos comparison...... but it's still not complete. Feel free to correct me, or donate your own information. And please don't be offended by anything below, or on the page in general - that isn't my intent. I'm only trying to find the roots of the ideas presented in this amazing game of ours. ^_~ Confucianism: Small parallels here. ^_~ Like Confucius, Sophia's teachings were more ethical than religious, and she probably had no intention of becoming a religious leader, or "prophet". But the followers of Confucius revered him, and began to think of his philosophies as a "religion". He considered himself a teacher. He emphasized balance of spirit (the yin and yang, I think...) over god, and the Golden Rule -- "What you do not want done to you, do not do to others." All religions share this rule, but it seems to be a central belief here. Sound familiar? "We should pray...... not to god, but to the part of him that is in our hearts......" (Similar, if you take it apart and really look at it.) A report on Confucianism, by Calis. (This can be opened automatically with Wordpad or MS Word, any version. If you need it in a different format for some reason, e-mail me.) Christianity: Well...... I didn 't really see any parallels here. ^^ Someone suggested it - on the DeM list, I believe - but as a follower of the religion, I can't say I recognized much of anything in the game. Certain visual elements -- such as the cathedral, the cross, the sisterhood, etc. reminded me of the religion, but not much else. And actually, if you want similarities... The Nisan cross resembles the cross I saw from the Scientology religion more than the Christian/Catholic form. (What I know about Scientology could fit through the eye of a needle though, so don't take my word in it!) I think that Square mixed in a lot of religions here. That's the case for the whole game, really...... And you know, I think they tried to make up for that by trashing the Evolution theory. ^_~ But it's interesting to see this -- if this is actually right, and they did use these religions...... well, they did a great job of combining them into one solid "belief system". It shows just how alike our world's religions really are.