#master asra

[summerviolin]

“ - Know, - said the magician and bending down, put a hand on your shoulder. - no matter what happens, always follow your dreams!”

I continue to give out gifts. This time I decided to give this charming Asra to @sad-arcana-au . He is waiting for you!❤️

I remind you that I am open to any requests and questions, so write and do not be shy!!!)

[mistress-of-the-cards]

WHAT IF...

I know what I'm about to suggest would be impossible for a mobile game - but what if say: that at some point in the story, doesn't matter whose route we either confront the Devil Arcana/Lucio and whomever we've romanced is gravely injuried or mental break since we know Asra, Julian, and Nadia (especially Nadia and Julian with their memory loss) care so much about the MC, either way we got to make a choice. We either stop The Devil/Lucio at whatever plan they have for the life of our beloved or we can sacrifice ourselves for them to stop Devil/Lucio. I already l know a lot of you are going "I'd sacrifice myself!!!"

Well, at what price?

Say the price is your memories again, of them specifically. You'd forget all about them, well, MC would forget all about them. But they'd leave, Devil/Lucio would be stopped and hey, you can always fall in love again right?

Okey, so you made your choice. You're going to sacrifice your memories. You tap your screen to accept and suddenly the screen boots you to the character route choices. Did you hit the wrong part of your screen? You don't have time to think further as suddenly your taken to you beloved profile route, to their memories of them. You can't do anything but sit there and watch as each and every CG of them is ereased.

This is what you wanted. Right?

[summerviolin]

Late night warmup sketch of Asra. Yeah, this sassy Master is still that sweetie🍭

[mistress-of-the-cards]

I WAS RIGHT!!!

[mistress-of-the-cards]

HOLD THE PHONE!

Ok, ok, my mind is going a mild a minute so here is this crazy as hell epiphany that riptired in my mind!!

Does anyone know the story of Persophone and Hades? For Persophane to remain in the underworld she ate 3 pomegranate seeds. Perhaps as the Apprentice we will be doing the same, or RATHER - We were already dead to begin with when the Ritual occured, instead of drinking Lucio's blood, they drank pomegranate juice in the wine....Wait. Wine, the LAST SUPPER!!! OK, everyone knows that Lucio's portrait in the dining hall is a reflection of the Last Supper, but has anyone mentioned what Christ did during it!? The bread was the body of Christ and the WINE WAS HIS BLOOD! Like Lucio tried to do, that and the Last Supper was before Christ was crucified and then brought back!! But listen here if we go with Persophone's story and the Last Supper it makes sense in a weird way: Lucio wanted to be reborn/brought back like the God he assumes he is, thus wine like Christ. Instead Asra put pomegranate juice, a fruit that is believed to be the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden but more importantly has ties to the underworld (Persophone)! The ritual worked cus it was for someone already dead that was brought back from a forbidden place, a place that was a Eden (the afterlife). The places were switched from the living to the dead....

[mistress-of-the-cards]

HOLY SMOKES! SPOILER FOR CHAPTER 14 TEMPERANCE!

Ok sooo,

It's confirmed we stole Lucio's meat suit. Now what matters is what comes afterwards to which all I can say is - I NEED MORE INFO! WE LEFT AT CLIFFHANGERS IN ALL OF THEM! Still, there is something to learn with what we have.

First off, after Asra tells is he stole our body from Lucio he also informs us that he sabotaged the ritual. This lead my thoughts to another theory post that stated that Asra switched the Tarot cards, but it's something else. Along with a few surprises.

Nadia was in on the plot, but we don't get more on her part of the plan unfortunately in Asra's Route. Also at the end of Nadia's Route the fake High Priestess is confirmed to be the Devil Arcana. I thought maybe it was Lucio sitting in his throne, but sadly the story ended there. At the end of Julian's Route we confront our furry friend but have no idea if it's Lucio or the Devil Arcana....Cliffhangers....

Anywho, back to Asra's "betrayal". As it turns out before the secret dinner party, Lucio had a chat with Asra. Besides Lucio's moaning on how he wants to be at the party and Asra's pure loathing on the man we discover that the key ingredient for the Ritual was Lucio's blood that would be given to the dinner guests. Everyone done gagging? Good let's continue, Asra tells us that Lucio would likely have mixed his blood with wine and he went about fixing such a thing by

He just swapped drinks, but as the Magician is quick to give us a ring there is so much more to this and time is running out. Playing through all the routes and seeing every character seem so far in their masks tells us that yes, they each represent their major Arcana. There's are obvious trio (Asra, Nadia, Julian) but we have everyone else as well. Also Valdemar, they are certainly confirming that they are the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse. The fourth is to be the "Pale Rider whom carries death".

So it seems it's all the information we can gather, bit something kept nagging at me. Why pomegranates? Sure, I may be looking too much into it, but let's see where this rabbit hole goes with pomegranates. After some research I've learned some symbolism with this fruit: Righteousness, fruitfulness, knowledge, learning, and wisdom. In the "righteousness" aspect, Asra was righteous to stop Lucio's plan. There's more though, apparently some scholars believe that it was the pomegranate that was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. If seeking a new body or resurrecting someone from the dead isn't forbidden, I don't know what is. Also a bit of a side note, in Asra's Route when we (The apprentice) approach Melichor and Mercedes to see what they have in their mouths and proceeded to spit out a pomegranate peice, we make a comment that it looks like a peice of a heart. How quaint as we do have half of Asra's heart, foreshadowing maybe. Ok, now back to the fruit. The pomegranate is also very spiritual and some people ask (notably in the Old testament) of God wants to communicate with us through this red fruit. What was it that Lucio wanted to do, oh right communicate with the Arcana, they're not God's but might as well be in their own right.

That's all I really have, not really a theory but more of laying out the puzzle peices to which we're missing some. I can't really come up with anything, the story right now is laying the groundwork for something. Perhaps in the next chapter we finally confront Lucio or the Devil and find out our own relationship with Lucio?