Third Generation

A Third Generation (第三世代, daisan sedai^?) is the name given to the Halfblood daughters of a Reyvateil mother and a human father, which are considered Reyvateils themselves.

History

The existence of the Third Generation Reyvateils can be called an accident, as they were never envisioned to exist as part of the original Project Reyvateil that was developed in conjunction with the First Tower of Ar tonelico, which can be seen due to the fact none of the systems of the SH Servers are prepared for them. Their whole existence is owed to the fact that one of the scientists that worked on the β Project: the project to create low-cost clones of the Origins, Kurogane, pushed and forced his way into adding functional reproductive organs to the design of the Pureblooded β-Types as part of his scheme to bring forth the Human Evolution Project he had been developing since his college days.

The Pureblooded β-Types that were produced as a consequence of this then went to fall in love with and marry humans afterward, with the end result that several of them had children as fruit of their union, with the first child of this type being born in 3048 AD in the region of Metafalss. However, one of these children died in 3060 AD, and while the cause of her death was thought to be a weak constitution, by 3064 the sudden death of children that had Reyvateil mothers became such a problem that the Grand Bell forbade the Reyvateils from having any children until they could find what was the link between them, with the research on the topic starting in 3072 AD.

Unfortunately, they were unable to find any solutions to the issue, leading to the Third Generation Reyvateils that were born afterward to be doomed to have tragically short lives, not even the ruling Maidens of Metafalss being spared from this cruel fate, until the first Maiden of Mio, Infel discovered the essential principles behind the creation of the Diquility life extending agent in 3300 AD, which finally allowed the Reyvateils to live past their twenties.

Ancestry

Any person can have the Reyvateil qualities that determine whether they awaken as Reyvateils or remain as normal humans latent in their blood, and they are generally passed down the family, so a person only needs to have had a single Reyvateil ancestor at some point in their family tree for them to awaken as a Reyvateil, even if the ancestor lived several centuries before them.

Gender

As with their Pureblooded β-Type and Origin ancestors, Third Generations can only be female due to the Y chromosome interfering with the wavelets that allow synchronization between the potential Reyvateil and the SH Server to which they will be connected. It is not known however how the Reyvateil qualities would interact with the chromosomes in atypical sexual chromosomal combinations.

Population

Third Generation Reyvateils are by far the most numerous of the Reyvateil types existing in Ar Ciel during the Third Era by virtue of the Origins being only three in number, and the number of Pureblooded β-Types being limited to a handful in Sol Ciel, their birth being strictly controlled in Sol Cluster, and being nonexistent in Metafalss.

All in all, Third Generations comprise about 40% of the population in Metafalss, and it has been stated to be the region with the largest Reyvateil population, while Third Generations comprise 16% of the population in Sol Ciel. Unfortunately, there are no exact counts of how the population is distributed in Sol Cluster.

Anatomy and Awakening

Strictly speaking, Third Generation Reyvateils are anatomically humans whose Reyvateil qualities were strong enough for them to emit H-Waves with the same strength as Pureblooded β-Types, which causes the SH Server to which their Reyvateil qualities are linked to misrecognize them as Pureblooded β-Types and link them to the β-6D Server as if they were a Pureblooded β-Type that somehow went unregistered.

This process typically happens during adolescence, but there have been some anomalous cases where the potential Reyvateil had her awakening as young as one year old. When the awakening process starts, the LPM of the SH Server will initiate a mirroring of the Static H-Waves of the Reyvateil to copy her memories, feelings and personality into one of β-6D's partitions in order to create her Cosmosphere, while at the same manifesting an Install Port somewhere on the Reyvateil's body. Similarly, she will be granted a connection to the Hymmnoserver and its libraries, which will allow the Reyvateil to read, speak, sing and understand the dialects of Hymmnos supported by the SH Server. The Reyvateil will be in a coma and suffer from a high fever until this process is complete, which generally can take up to ten days. Also, unlike the Origins and Pureblooded β-Types, which have their Install Port shapes stored into their specifications as ROM data, the Third Generations will have their Install Ports with chaotic shapes due to the data for them being pulled from an indeterminate area instead.

The awakening process cannot be interrupted or cancelled once started, although its effects can be nullified if the Reyvateil is taken outside the SH Server's range, which will put her Reyvateil qualities in a dormant state and will cause her to lose her powers, but it will also remove all the drawbacks that come with being a Reyvateil. Similarly, there is a procedure carried out in Sol Cluster called the Blocking Operation, which can be used for a Reyvateil to suppress her awakening and remain as a normal human.

Abilities

Third Generation Reyvateils still have a connection to the Tower like the Origins and Pureblooded β-Types do, so they can also Sing Song Magic for battle and support purposes. They are ultimately humans with Reyvateil powers though, so they have a considerable variance in the term of their individual abilities, leading to some Third Generations equaling or even surpassing the Pureblooded β-Types in power and skill, while others are unable to Sing at all.

This is the reason why the Tenba Conglomerate and the Church of El Elemia have made a ranking system that divides the Reyvateil in classes, with the strongest ones being Class A and the weakest ones being Class D. That said, though, the class system is based on a test called the Hexagonal Plate Test that is carried out in Sol Ciel at the time a girl is born, which uses a Grathnode-based plate to determine the Class depending on how much of it is absorbed into the body, and which does not consider the actual power and feelings variance the Reyvateil may demonstrate in practice.

Additionally, the variance in individual powers is what also could end up causing tragedies were the Third Generations be allowed to Sing Hymmnos Extracts: if the Reyvateil who attempts to Sing an Extract cannot provide the average flow and nominal spectral demands that are coded in the Hymn Crystal, she will be consumed by the Extract and die when she attempts to Sing it. Fortunately though, few Third Generations can Sing Extracts due to the fact they cannot Download these Songs due to not having the identifier required by the Download Ceremony: the Hymn Code.

Hymn Codes

Nominally, the Third Generations do not have Hymn Codes, as they do not have a valid identifier that can be spoken at the time the Download Ceremony is conducted. However, this is not strictly true: the Third Generations have the same Soulspace structure as the Pureblooded β-Types, which means they also have a Hymn Code zone in the H-Wave frequencies around 100 Hz above where their Lv. 9 Cosmospheres are located.

The difference is that the Pureblooded β-Types have samples of this Hymn Code zone taken, recorded and tagged when they are created, while Third Generations do not have this benefit due to the complication of having to take the sample from a living person rather from a Triangular Nuclear Loop that is undergoing cultivation. Therefore, the lack of tagging causes the Hymn Code zone to read as a bunch of garbage data for the Third Generations, which makes it impossible for them to access Downloads.

However, about 10% of the Third Generations happen to have this garbage data become a character string that is identical to the Hymn Code of a previously existing Reyvateil, which the SH Server will consider as valid and will grant the Third Generation the same privileges as the original Hymn Code's owner. This does not mean the Cosmosphere is duplicated though, as the system will consider them as different files in different Soulspace Addresses that just happen to have the same file name.

This coincidental match can also be forced through the β-ER technique, which consists of Installing the D-Cellophane of an Origin or Pureblooded β-Type into a Third Generation, which will permanently change the form of her Hymn Code zone and its attached character string into an identical copy of the Hymn Code's original owner.

Aging and Lifespan

Contrary to their ancestors, Third Generations are the Reyvateils with the shortest lives between all existing types. Due to the SH Server's Symphonic Power coursing through their bodies and the fact that the LPM malfunctions for them due to their lack of the Triangular Nuclear Loops possessed by the Origins and the Pureblooded β-Types, Third Generations are doomed to have short lives that untreated, don't go beyond 20 years at most, with the more powerful Third Generations tending to have the shortest lives among them all due to channeling more Symphonic Power.

As mentioned previously, the lack of the Triangular Nuclear Loop causes the LPM to activate an emergency system called the HD Conversion Ring that converts their Static H-Waves into Dynamic H-Waves for the purpose of preserving the Reyvateil body that is structured by the SH Server's processes, but which in the Third Generations proves lethal due to it destroying their souls and bodies. While initially the Reyvateil herself can replenish the Static H-Waves that are consumed by the HD Conversion Ring, the Dynamic H-Wave requirements that her Reyvateil body demands will steadily increase more and more, which will overwhelm her once she reaches 18 years in age, leading to her death in what is known commonly with the name of Tattoolist Syndrome. This is the reason why the Install of the medicine known as Diquility is required every three months for them to be able to live beyond 20 years in age.

However, it must be noted that even in the case Diquility is administered, most Third Generations do not tend to live beyond 40 years old, which is also the average lifespan for humans in Ar Ciel. This can be prevented though if their partners or caretakers ensure they Install the Diquility on schedule, as even putting off the Install a day can lead to the death of an aged Reyvateil due to them growing weaker and frailer with every year they age.

And due to the fact they are humans with Reyvateil powers, they also age the same way as humans do, so they do not enjoy the everlasting youth the Origins and Pureblooded β-Types have.

Medleys

Main article: Medley

Main article: Border Disease

The Third Generation Reyvateils in Sol Cluster are special in that, due to the machinations of the Archia Think Tank, their Reyvateil qualities are modified to always be active instead of being randomly decided to be active or inactive, which causes every single person in the region to be a potential Reyvateil. However, contrary to what it might sound, it has disastrous consequences: most of these potential Reyvateils are assigned addresses that fall beyond the SH Server's valid address range, so if they have an epiphany or emotional shock that would normally lead to the crafting of Song Magic, the SH Server will attempt to contact the Tower of Life in their Cosmosphere to confirm the crafting of the Song, but upon noticing the Soulspace Address is not within the valid range, the SH Server will overwrite the Cosmosphere with a stream of garbage data from the Binary Field that will reduce them to zombies that attack indiscriminately, or who only repeat a single action over and over.