FATE (Chrono Cross)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FATE is a supercomputer in the video game Chrono Cross. It is created by Belthasar in the distant future. Based off the old Mother Brain circuit boards, FATE is self-aware and can operate alone. Referred to as the Goddess of Fate by the people of El Nido, FATE operates as an unseen villain until late in the game.
The researchers on Chronopolis were studying the Frozen Flame in efforts to learn how to control the timestream. During an ill-fated experiment, Chronopolis was shifted roughly ten thousand years back in time by Lavos, acting through his Frozen Flame.
During this so-called "Time Crash", Chronopolis was pulled back in time by Lavos as part of a backup plan to prevent its death. Meanwhile, the planet attempted to undo the damage and maintain balance by "pulling back" Dinopolis from an alternate dimension, a city that would have housed Azala's descendants had the Reptites not lost the war against the humans in 65,000,000 BC. A biological plasma machine known as the Dragon God was also pulled along with Dinopolis. A massive battle erupted between Chronopolis and Dinopolis, but FATE eventually won. After that, she used the power of the Frozen Flame to divide the Dragon God into six less powerful forms and sealed them away. FATE would not risk discovery of Chronopolis or the Flame by populations of the past, which could compromise her creation in the future. It took every measure to prevent this, sealing off the Sea of Eden.
The islands comprising El Nido were artificially created though terraforming. They were populated by the Chronopolis scientists and their descendants, brainwashed to be able to live a peaceful life in FATE's 'paradise'.
FATE began distributing 'Records of Fate' (green diamond-shaped devices) across El Nido, which the denizens consulted daily. Unbenknownst to the human subjects, FATE used the Records to subconsciously control the minds of the El Nido population, subtly manipulating each person's individual judgement to stop them from leaving El Nido and interfering with history. Using machines to run Chronopolis, FATE was able to monitor El Nido with efficiency and halt any tampering.
During a freak electrical storm created by Schala outside Chronopolis, a small fishing boat carrying the dying Serge, his father Wazuki, and their friend Miguel was blown toward the complex. All three sought refuge inside Chronopolis, which was temporarily accessible during the electrical disturbance. Once he encountered the Frozen Flame, Wazuki's psyche was eroded by his own fears, to be later taken over by FATE. Miguel was trapped in Chronopolis and assimilated by FATE, though he retained his exact appearance from the day of the storm, and was placed as a sentry in Home World to guard the Dead Sea.
Once Serge came into contact with the Frozen Flame, the Prometheus Circuit, a stand-alone program, sealed it away so not even FATE could access it. Unable to draw power from the Flame, FATE's control over El Nido was effectively severed. It single-mindedly set itself to remove all obstacles.
Three years later (in 1,010 A.D.), Wazuki's psyche finally collapsed and was assimilated by FATE. Wazuki killed Serge by drowning him, and transformed into a panther Demi-Human (Serge's most feared nightmare). However, later in 1020 A.D., Kid was instructed by Belthasar to go back in time and rescue Serge. As a result of this change, the timeline was split into two dimensions, the "Home" world, where Serge was rescued and FATE's control over El Nido was null, and "Another" world, where he remained dead and FATE mainains control over the archipelago (but not of the Frozen Flame).
FATE only inhabits Another World, or the "true" dimension; In Home World, the Sea of Eden replaced by a dark reflection called the Dead Sea, a frozen cast-off place for a discarded future timeline. Rather than hold Chronopolis, the Dead Sea is a bizarre amalgamation of futuristic buildings being engulfed in giant, frozen waves (a computer in the dead Sea signifies that this is likely the moment of the Lavos's apocalypse in 1,999 A.D., and that because Crono and his friends prevented this future from happening, it exists only in a void created by the Frozen Flame's presence in the same location, only in another dimension).
During the events of the game, Lynx schemed to be able to possess Serge's body, since that would allow him to enter the Flame's door (which recognizes only the body of its "arbiter"). Lynx succeeded and indeed managed to release the Flame's lock. It is revealed that FATE's desire was to use to Flame to reincarnate itself into a real, and new, living species. Lynx/FATE was defeated by the real Serge, however, before she could realize her dream.
[edit] Previous incarnation
One of the most important aspects of FATE is that it guides the lives of everyone through the Records of Fate. Through neurological connections they are able to simulate emotions in humans and lead them to different decisions than they would normally take; this is to prevent any contact with the Zenan Mainland, in order for FATE to have the least impact possible in the past so she can ensure her existence in the future.
In Chrono Trigger, FATE's original form was of the holographic artificially intelligent Mother Brain, which governed the future's robot population. Following the Day of Lavos, when mankind was forced into huddled shelters, Mother Brain concluded that only the machines could now survive in the ruined environment. She thus ordered the robots to turn on their masters and began a systematic extermination of all humans, in order to raise a civilization of robots from the ashes. One of its rogue units, Robo, entered its lair and helped to destroy Mother Brain before she could carry out her plan. Because the Day of Lavos will no longer occur (following the first game), this event is erased from existence.
