Luna, Luna, Cecilia, Cecilia

First with the release of Fallen Cecilia, and then with the story we received in the epilogue of the Halloween 2019 event, I think I have an idea of what the developers and writers plan to do with the story of Luna and Cecilia. It’s a bit complex, and there may be spoilers ahead if you haven’t done the Halloween event. Mind you, this is only my own theory, so take it as that. There is no clear evidence to say that I’ve got this right.

Background on the Players Involved Here

If you read the little bit of story that Dominiel has on Stove about Fallen Cecilia, we are told that in ML Ceci’s world there was a human mage named Luna. Luna was responsible for a grave betrayal that led to the death of a number of Ceci’s comrades, and thus Fallen Ceci has gone on a quest to get her revenge against that mage. Whoever this mage was, they were powerful enough to be able to kill dragons, so they aren’t exactly anyone to mess with.

Now, in the Wintenburg we know of thus far, the non-ML Cecilia’s mother is named Francesca. Francesca is likewise known as a badass who can take down dragons like nobody’s business, and even sent the Cidonia episodes’ resident villain, Straze, running.

Cecilia grew up with a friend named Luna…

This Luna is a half-dragon, half-human. Similar to Francesca, Luna is also a major wall of destruction. The two were apparently good friends. But, she has a kindly personality with Cecilia and the younger-sister-like Yufine.

At some point prior to the start of the E7 main story, Luna seemingly betrayed Cecilia, pushing her into a portal in a gorge which whisked Cecilia to Ritania. Ever since, Cecilia has been searching for a way back home to Eureka, haunted by the brief glimpse she had of the one she thinks was trying to kill her. But Winterberg is surrounded by a powerful magical barrier that keeps others from leaving or entering, under the pretense of guarding against the chaos and dangers of the Archdemon Wars in Ritania.

In the Halloween 2019 event, Cecilia is exploring a haunted mansion with Yuna and Serilia, where they discover a Chaos Gate. Venturing through the Chaos Gate, Cecilia is able to travel once more back to Winterberg, and once there comes face to face with Luna. Luna all but admits to having been the one that pushed Cecilia from that cliff, and after a battle with Cecilia, once more pushes her through the Chaos Gate, bidding her to never return.

Francesca, aka ML Luna

So this part of the theory is where it all starts. It’s a little out there, but I think there’s plenty of support for it based on what we know about the story behind Luna and Cecilia.

Everything we know about the Luna we are most familiar with, which admittedly isn’t a whole lot, tells us that she was always very kind and considerate. She was beloved by both former residents of Winterberg, Yufine and Cecilia.

But something changed and she seemingly became cold, standoffish, and if her camping compatibility is any indication, incapable of getting along with others. Unlike Yufine and Cecilia, who from our perspective look no more draconic than Luna, Luna is only a half dragon. And from what we’re told from various supplemental materials, half-dragon Luna looks identical to mage Luna.

But from the images of Francesca that we know of, the woman on the Draco Plate artifact, Luna and Francesca also share a very distinct resemblance. Now, this could be coincidental – we know anime and game artists can sometimes have same-face syndrome across multiple characters. But assuming for a moment that the similarities in appearance aren’t merely coincidental, one can certainly see Francesca as appearing much like an older version of Luna.

Here’s my theory;

The mage Luna from Eureka was conducting dark experiments. She used the conflict between the dragon clans to manipulate both sides, turning the dragons into magic stones, much like Kayron was doing in his gambit to revive the Archdemon. When she was confronted and chased down by Cecilia, she wound up passing through a Chaos Gate, ending up in Winterberg.

Once in Winterberg, Mage Luna had to start her work from scratch, and had this new world of dragons to work with. With her knowledge and strength gained in the last world, she rose to power in this one. She used the threat of the wars in Ritania as a pretext to erect the magical barrier around Winterberg, effectively holding captive the dragons that were the source of fodder for her experiments.

Not unlike the homunculus experiments that yielded Mercedes and Sigret, or that which created Sez, Mage Luna, now going by the name Francesca, created human/dragon hybrids. The most successful of these was the Luna we know.

Luna was an obedient protégé, naïve to the manner of her birth or what Francesca was up to. Luna was even suitable as a big-sister figure for Francesca’s “daughter” Cecilia, likely even spending more time beside Cecilia than Francesca did.

One day, however, Luna discovered Francesca’s secret. Like she had done in in her home world, Francesca was preparing to carry out a large-scale experiment that would sacrifice a great number of dragons of Winterberg. She tried to kill Francesca, and though the world recognizes her as dead, Luna knows that Francesca actually faked her death and escaped. In order to protect the two dearest to her, Luna sent Cecilia and Yufine through a Chaos Gate, knowing that there would be almost no way for them to get back to Winterberg. Ever since, she has been engaged in a desperate struggle against Francesca, while bearing the brand of a traitor.

So, what do you think? Will this be anything close to what happens? I think that until Cidonia’s story is done they’ll tease out little tidbits like the Halloween epilogue. But, once Cidonia is done, I expect Winterberg will be the next region we’ll visit, and we’ll get the full story of the land of dragons. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Luna or ML Luna will play a part in helping to defeat Straze. I have another theory, even further out there, that Celestial Mercedes actually came to Orbis to keep an eye on the entity that has been assisting Straze, which I believe is also connected to ML Luna.

E7 has played it fairly straight with most of their characters and their stories. It is clear they have been holding back on making Luna out to be a pure villain, so my estimate is that she won’t be one. If the latest Stove event is any indication, Luna is a definitive fan favorite. Typically franchises who have popular but undefined characters are hesitant to make them into outright villains. They will usually only go so far as making them anti-heroes – have them do bad things for reasons the story will treat as the right ones.

Regardless, this could turn out to be an exciting story. It is one of the most intriguing sub-plots in the game right now. I’m looking forward to its development.