Krelian

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Krelian is the main antagonist of the 1998 Square Co., Ltd. RPG Xenogears.

1 History
2 Storyline
- 2.1 Disc 1
- 2.2 Disc 2
3 Notes
4 See also
5 Sources
6 External links

[edit] History

Krelian was born in year 9465 of the Xenogears timeline in the country of Nimrod, which at that time was the largest country on the surface outside of Shevat. At the age of 23 Krelian met Sophia(Elhaym), who was at that time very ill. Krelian befriended the 13 year old Sophia, and helped get her better. Ironically enough Krelian had originally been sent to kill Sophia by the Emperor of Nimrod, but found himself unable to do the task. By the age of 30 Krelian had moved to Nisan along with Sophia and became the leader of Nisan's army. Later that year the epic war between Solaris and the surface dwellers began. At the end of the war Sophia sacrificed herself while helping clear a route for allies to escape. Her death drastically changed Krelian, who refused to believe a God that would let this happen existed. From that point onward he became determined to create God himself.

Five years after the end of the war, Krelian met Cain, the Emperor of Solaris. Due to Krelian's knowledge of nanotechnology, which he had learned from the Shevat sage Melchoir, Krelian made himself quite useful to the Emperor. Later that year Krelian successfully revived 8 of the Gazel Ministers as computer data in the SOL-9000. Due to his vast knowledge and skills, Krelian quickly became the most powerful and important person in Solaris, even more so than the Emperor and Gazel Ministry. While they were to the public, the ones in charge, Krelian had become the true leader of Solaris.

A few years after meeting Cain, Krelian, using nanotechnology, was able to permanently extend the life of not only himself, but also Queen Zephyr and the 3 Shevat sages. Krelian did this to them as punishment for Shevat allowing Sophia to be killed. Approximately 200 years after the war ended Krelian forcibly put limiters into all the Lambs to prevent any future uprising.

[edit] Storyline

[edit] Disc 1

Krelian in anime form.

The first mention of Krelian in Xenogears is by a member of the Gazel Ministry, who says that Krelian is going to Aquvy in order to intercept a ship (the Thames) that has discovered the ruins of Zeboim. Within Zeboim lies Emeralda, the quintessential nanomachine creation. The Gazel Ministry, however, considers Krelian's search for Emeralda "exorbitant." Soon afterward, Krelian makes his first appearance in the game, aboard the Solaris ship Ezekiel. Krelian orders his test subjects, the Wels, to attack the Thames.

Later, some of the game's heroes arrive in Zeboim and discover Emeralda, but Bishop Stone arrives on behalf of Krelian. Stone claims, "if Krelian uses the nanomachine colony, at least we can save some chosen people." Stone proceeds to escape with Emeralda. Krelian is later seen reporting to the Gazel Ministry that he has obtained Emeralda; Krelian also reminds them that he revived them and will not take orders from them. In a later meeting with the Gazel, Krelian announces that he has gathered all the data that he needs from Emeralda, and so he does not care what happens to it.

Krelian is next seen using one of his clones of Emperor Cain, whom Krelian has kept alive via nanotechnology, in order to speak to the people of Solaris. At this point, Elly reveals a key plot point to Fei: Krelian is the real leader of Solaris. Fei suddenly blacks out and remembers his previous incarnation, Lacan, speaking with Krelian in Nisan 500 years ago. Krelian begins mentioning something about saving people's lives, especially Sophia's, but at that point Fei awakens.

Fei and Elly enter Krelian's laboratory in an effort to rescue the rest of their party, but Krelian captures them as well. Krelian discovers that Elly has the 'Urobolus Ring' and is the 'Mother.' He also calls Elly "beautiful" and says that she has not changed "since then." After Krelian exits, however, Citan helps the party, including Elly, escape.

Back on the Ezekiel, Krelian again speaks with the Gazel Ministry. He says that he has sent Ramsus to handle Fei. When a Minister questions Krelian about his amicable past with Fei (Lacan), Krelian responds, "I've thrown away all feelings of human emotion. All I need is her." Krelian then contacts Ramsus and tells him to retrieve Elly, but Ramsus ignores these orders, since he is only concerned with defeating Fei.

[edit] Disc 2

Krelian first appears on the second disc in another discussion with the Gazel Ministry. Here he reinforces the importance of Elly to him, but also says that since he can get her any time, it does not have to be now.

Presumably, this delay is because of Krelian's conspiracy against Cain. The Gazel Ministry states that Cain "dares to go against our objectives." After the Ministry harasses Ramsus by calling him "worthless," Krelian initiates his plan. He tells Ramsus—Krelian's creation who is able to kill Cain—that Cain's existence divides Ramsus' power. Ramsus, desperate for more power in order to defeat Fei, complies with Krelian's orders. In a key statement, Krelian tells Cain, "I try to lead the people 'in my own way.'" Ramsus then successfully assassinates Cain.

After Cain's death, the Gazel Ministry uses the Gaetia Key in order to make Mahanon rise from under the sea. In Mahanon, Fei and his party discover Razael's Tree, but Krelian appears and takes it, along with Deus. With Grahf's help, Krelian captures the party; Krelian needs them as bait in order to lure Elly to him. Krelian takes the party to Golgoda and crucifies them.

Elly goes alone to Golgoda. Krelian offers to let the rest of the party live if Elly can defeat two Gears. She does so, and Krelian keeps his promise. Krelian then returns to the Ezekiel after announcing that he is going to take Elly with him.

On the Ezekiel, Krelian meets once more with the Gazel Ministry. At this point, Krelian betrays them, claiming that since they have activated the Gaetia Key, he no longer needs them. While he is erasing them, he strongly rejects their claim that they could have become god; Krelian says that humans can only entrust themselves to god.

Krelian then constructs the Ark of Merkava by using his knowledge of nanotechnology and Razael's Tree. Krelian takes Deus and Elly with him to Merkava. While Fei and the party attempt to rescue Elly in Merkava, they meet up with Ramsus. At this point, a flashback shows that Krelian created Ramsus as an artificial contact, but discarded him after learning from Miang that the true contact, Fei, was born.

After defeating Ramsus again, Fei and his party reach Krelian and Miang. Krelian says that they helped him assemble all of the parts of god, and proclaims that it is time for the resurrection of god. Ramsus then appears, questioning his purpose in life, and lashes out at Miang and Krelian. Ramsus seemingly kills Krelian, but since Krelian's body is mostly composed of nanomachines that essentially make him immortal, he quickly revives. Miang also survives, merely taking over Elly's body after her first body is killed. Krelian enters Deus with Miang, who now possesses the body of Elly.

Fei's party goes to Shevat and talks to Zephyr, who reveals some of Krelian's past. 500 years earlier, in Nisan, a rebel army that contained Krelian, Lacan, and Sophia (Elly's previous incarnation) were nearly destroyed by Solaris. Sophia, however, sacrificed herself so that the army could escape. Afterward, in Krelian's shaping moment, he says, "Why did she have to be sacrificed? Is god dead...? Is he just not there...? Maybe god never existed to begin with! ... If god doesn't exist in our world, then... I will create god with my own hands!"

So after that, Krelian met up with Miang, who also sought to resurrect god (Deus). The two started working together as partners, both aiming to resurrect Deus and doom humanity. It is around this point that Krelian attempts to clone Emperor Cain to create a new -Contact-, Ramsus. However, Miang possessed Karen, Fei's mother, and alerted Krelian of the new Contact's existence, so Krelian and Miang trashed Ramsus.

Krelian sprouts angelic wings.

Eventually Fei's party manages to destroy Merkava, but Deus' completed form emerges from it. After a long battle, Fei's party defeats Deus. From there, the Wave Existence, the real 'god' of the Xenogears universe, escapes from Deus. Krelian then explains his ultimate goal to Fei. Because humans live in an imperfect state that is filled with sadness, Krelian wants to revert everything to the perfect, unified state of waves. Krelian says that this place is filled with the love of god instead of the false love that humans experience. After that, he summons Urobolus, the final incarnation of Miang, to fight Fei.

After Fei defeats Urobolus, however, Krelian releases Elly. Elly tells Fei that Krelian was deeply saddened by Sophia's death and actually loved people greatly, and so he tried to make it so that no one would experience loss again. Krelian then saves Fei and Elly, and chooses to "walk with god" (i.e. follow the Wave Existence back to its dimension via the Path of Sephirot). While he departs, two angelic wings bloom on his shoulders. His last line is, "Actually, I envy you two."

[edit] Notes

During the game, Krelian appears with blonde-colored hair. In the Nisan flashback scenes, however, he has midnight blue-colored hair. The hair color change is never explained in the game, nor in Perfect Works, leading players to wonder whether or not it is a continuity error. A mainstream theory is that the nanomachines that keep Krelian alive caused his hair to change color. However, other characters who are kept alive by nanomachines (e.g. Queen Zephyr, Taura Melchior, Isaac Balthasar, Gaspar Uzuki) do not appear to have undergone a similar change. Thus, an alternative theory is that Krelian merely chose to change his hair color at some point—perhaps after Sophia's death or when he joined Solaris. Yet another possibility is that Krelian changed his hair color to better fit with the denizens of Solaris, whose majority is blonde-haired. Interestingly, there is another video game character whose hair changes from blue to blonde over a long period of time: Schala of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, games which happen to share many development team members with Xenogears.

The name Krelian is a mistransliteration of his name in the original Japanese version of Xenogears: カレルレン or Karellen. This name is a reference to a character in Arthur C. Clarke's novel, Childhood's End. In their respective stories, both characters take it upon themselves to serve as a guiding force for all of humanity, with the intention of helping it to evolve to a higher form.

The ultimate goals and final plans of Krelian bear a striking resemblance to the theological idea of Apocatastasis.