Okay as a self-appointed lore expert, let me ask you, how the hell is Dura alive in Journey? And how does nobody make a big deal out of it?
THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THIS UP BECAUSE I THOUGHT I WAS GOING CRAZY 💀💀
I’ve got two sort of theories on this:
Before I start I’m prefacing that this is all mostly from memory. I also assumed that Misarte (the wilder’s deity) and the Mauler’s god are both Dura in different forms with a different name. The Lightbearers believe in Dura, and since the graveborn are only former humans, I assume they have the same interpretation. Anyways, onto my theories!
1. This is just an alternate storyline. Most of the arena story/lore seems to be changed or erased in some way anyways, and even if annoying, it’s possible they just revived Dura for the sake of the story.
There are plenty of other things I’ve noticed, Rowan and Lorsan beings strangers, Satrana’s entire backstory being changed (a former orphan saved by antandra, then becoming a flame keeper at the temple. Now she’s a diviner?? What)
There also seems to be lesser gods, separate entities from playable celestials. There’s mention of the Dusk lord and Sun god, lesser than Dura but higher than celestials. In Arena, Celestials are the only ones under Dura, most are created equal I assume. There’s also Hypofiends, not exactly mentioned in arena.
There’s also literally no mention of Annih anywhere in Journey?? Crazy considering he was the main force behind the hypogean invasion.
I personally have been taking Journey as a different storytelling of Arena’s Esperia. Like Esperia A for Arena and Esperia J for Journey.
2. Dura’s death was never publicly known. From my understanding of the timeline referenced from the art book, Dura dies, Annih renounces divinity, and because he leaves, graveborns are created by Quandem. That’s where we are in both Esperia A and J.
It’s said that Dura died in a wilder plane, but only Celestial stories seem to mention any events that relate to her death (Athalia’s search for morality, Titus’s protection of the temple, Orthros rewinding time to before her death, etc.) It’s probably known widely about her being weakened during the hypogean war, but maybe everyone assumes she’s just sleeping or something.
Of course, we get cutscenes in Journey of Dura herself and her voice. The scene with Lyca and Misarte had me externally dumbfounded. I think it may just be her residual celestial powers still in Esperia. She was the major god of this world, I imagine she would have some imprint left after her death. Everyone who references her, being Dura, Misarte, etc, seems to just pray to her as a higher being. It could be possible they’re just unaware she’s dead, and mistake her leftover power as her actually acting.
Of course, these are just personal theories, and I feel like we haven’t gotten enough out of the Journey plot to actually know what’s going on with the changes. I do wish they didn’t make these weird ass changes though, makes everything frustrating and less authentic. But I’m just happy to have more content 🫡 hopefully everything I said was factual LMAO
