Angelica and ML Angelica. What Could They Be?

Goddess Sister

There are few things I enjoy as much as crafting stories. Even if they’re utterly ridiculous, it is tremendous fun to take an idea and just let it travel where it may. That was what I did with the theory I came up with several weeks ago for Luna’s mother, Francesca. I’m basically doing that again here, this time with Angelica.

I do try to keep to things reasonably plausible for the world in question, and discount that which has no real basis. For example, a number of folks like to adhere to the theory that Bask is Aither’s father. But, that clearly isn’t possible. We know Aither is less than 20 years old. We also know Bask died in the last Archdemon War. Unlike the modern world where there is invitro fertilization and the freezing of sperm, eggs, and embryos, such things don’t exist in Orbis. Heck, there isn’t even any indication that the syrupy sweet and pure affection the two held for each other had progressed beyond the hand-holding stage, let alone to baby-making. Add to that her apparent age at the time, and the fact Aither would have had to be gestating in her womb for around five years more before he would be born, Bask is clearly not the father, baring some off-the-wall reveal that he survived or came back to life.

Where It Comes From

Both within and outside the confines of the Epic 7 story, Angelica is a bit of the mystery. Despite inhabiting a world where humans have longer than normal lifespans, where it’s not terribly uncommon for individuals to look younger than their true age, Lady Angelus is noted by many to be uncommon in here lack of aging. In fact, little is known about her or her past at all.

In a mini side quest during the Small Miracle Christmas event, a short-lived attempt to track down the details of Angelica’s past ends in failure, only alluding to a girl who may be similar to Angelica, but who lived too impossibly long ago for the two to be the same.

During Diene and Bask’s side story, a young Bask meets Angelica shortly after being placed in charge of Diene’s safety. At the time Angelica is an unknown young-looking girl, not even a member of the Conclave yet. Bask asks her name and she pauses a bit before coming out with the name Angelica Angelus. This moment strongly suggests that the name “Angelica Angelus” is one that she either stole or made up.

In that same interaction, Bask comments about her age. He at first calls her a teenager. She reacts with a bit of anger, as if insulted, which leads him to guess that she is in her twenties. This elicits the same reaction from her, thus Bask decides it best not to continue and drops the matter entirely.

This tells us that, at a minimum, Angelica at that time had to have been either somehow younger than 13, or at least 30.

Now, unlike Diene, we don’t have any images of Angelica at the various times of events in the story to know for sure how similar she appears at various times. They use the same default art for her at all times. It’s the same for all characters really, so any comments about appearance can only be taken at face value.

Assuming that the reactions about Angelica are true, or at least reasonably close, that leaves little room for doubt that Angelica isn’t a regular human. She is absolutely something else. But what?

Theory 1: An “Actual” Angel

Angelica’s angelic demeanor is hardly in doubt. Her voice is soft and airy, her speech is very wispy. She evokes nothing but a pure aura to her. And she is always espousing wisdom that she bases on the goddess, Diche.

Yet, the first encounter shown of Angelica suggests that she isn’t actually particularly religious. In fact, she seemed to be relatively aloof, if not disbelieving, of the mantras of the Conclave. She appears to have held views seriously opposed to those of the Conclave. At the same time, she assumes a seemingly boundless confidence in the goddess that is as natural as anything else in the world. It allows for a minute window into an out-there idea; Angelica is the incarnation of a spirit.

The idea is that Angelica was actually a spirit. Given the instability due to the Archdemon Wars, and the sacrifices connected to it, Angelica grew exhausted by her role in supporting the world. However, unlike Vildred and Corvus who resolved to seek their form of revenge against the world, or the Nocturnes who sealed themselves off and chose to just accept death, Angelica thought to go out to see the world more as a normal human than anything special as a sprit. She chose the body of a young girl to take up residence in, the girl having been killed in the fighting during the war. Having incarnated into the body of a human, she is lacking the total power she would normally have as a spirit, but is also more powerful than an average human. The only ones who can match her power as a Soul Weaver are the likes of Diene or Ruele, who held within them the power of a Spirit Lord.

Being a spirit herself, Angelica isn’t able to turn the other way so easily when seeing others suffering, thus her aspiration of living a life of quiet idolatry as a regular human fell apart when she found herself relied on as a skilled healer. Despite holding back on her full powers, she was a pinnacle among Soul Weavers and became a spiritual leader of the Conclave. When the Archdemon War came to an end with the sealing of the Archdemon, she hoped Diene would supplant her, but that didn’t work out as Diene instead became queen of Ezera. Furthermore, with the darker elements of the Conclave being exposed and pushed out, her role as an inspirational head developed into one as an actual leader. Ever since, Angelica has been serving as the head of the Conclave, training other Soul Weavers in the hopes that one day one of them will become powerful enough to take on the burden so she could finally retire and return to her original ambition.

Theory 2: ML Angelica is Celestial Ange

This theory holds a little more water, but is similarly out there. From what we know about C. Meru, the celestials are willful beings who have a like to do what they find of interest to them, and are not above playing the long game. We also know that the celestials are able to change and adapt their appearance pretty much at will, and are not bound by the rules of Orbis.

The possibility, therefore, is that the “real” Angelica is actually a celestial. Seeking to escape from wherever she was and whatever her responsibilities were, she came to Orbis in the midst of its Archdemon War. Similar to Luluca’s arrival on Orbis, Angelica was immediately in a situation where her powers were needed. She demonstrated her abilities and that caught folks’ attention. She likely used her incredible healing powers, which led people to assume she was a Soul Weaver. She likely fled that situation, not wanting her time on Orbis confined to that role. Sometime later is when she met Bask and Diene in the forest.

By this theory, Angelica is actually a Celestial who left her original world behind. Rather than wanting to travel around the way C. Meru does, Angelica instead only wanted to find someplace where she could just get by without doing a lot. This was working for her until she became involved with Diene, Bask, and Krau. As a result, she became depended on by the Conclave, becoming its leader, and the spiritual support for the religion centered on the goddess Diche. However, she assumed this would be a short-lived thing. Her lack off true piety, she assumed, alongside the eventual defeat of the Archdemon, would have someone more suited appear. And not having to run around the way Diene did, she thought she could skate by not having to do much. That didn’t happen.

When “Ange” came to Orbis, she picked a young school girl she saw as her avatar, expecting that no one would pay her any mind that way. Unfamiliar with the humans of Orbis, she didn’t take into account things like age or aging. By the time she realized that she messed up by not at least picking an older body, or artificially aging herself a little at a time, she thought it was already too late, and that it would instead raise suspicion if she suddenly started to grow older. She instead decided she would make believe that her lack of aging was a result of her superior powers as a Soul Weaver.

So, there you have it – the two theories behind Angelica’s origins. As I said, neither is particularly likely from a practical standpoint. Given that ML Angelica was datamined months ago, I don’t know that you can really craft an ML Angelica from an Angelica with these backgrounds. Potentially a tweak or two would make the Celestial Angelica idea work, but again, not likely.

If I had to guess on the “real” outcome for ML Angelica it’s likely she will be simply some older version of regular Angelica. Maybe not a “bishoujo” type, but perhaps an elderly sage type. I could honestly see them going either way, though we all know the bishoujo route likely has more selling power. As for the mystery of her age, it has fallen out of style in the last decade or two, but shounen stories used to be super big on the concept of a sage veteran’s powers simply making them look younger. Think of Genkai in the Dark Tournament in the Yu Yu Hakusho series, or Natsume Maya in the Tenjho Tenge series (look them up).

As for her abilities as a character in game, I don’t know how you can improve Angelica’s kit without her becoming terribly broken, so she would likely have to use some newer mechanic. I think of stuff like continuous heal, a cleanse, or adding Reflect to her barrier, on top of her current kit, as having too much chance of being OP given she already has some of the best heals in the game to boot. But maybe a defense buff could work, if not swapping out her current kit for one with continuous heal and a Reflect barrier. Adding a revive would be too simplistic and just make her more like a copy-and-paste of Ruele and Maid Chloe.

She could undergo a complete class change. Even though their respective kits didn’t really change that dramatically, Vildred->A.Vildred and Kise->J.Kise went from Thiefs to Warriors, so ML Angelica could well end up as something other than a Soul Weaver. In that case, predicting a niche or kit for her is all but impossible. Do you go Mage and become more of a hybrid support unit? Knight and become the second coming of Clarissa?  

But we’ll see. It probably won’t be too long until we know one way or another what her deal is. Either way, it’ll be interesting.