#saint oratorio

[dat-soldier]

Ciaran for Saint Oratorio

[gear-project]

Interesting to note that Guilty Gear X webpage suggests that Asuka and Raven may actually have the two unnamed Sacred Treasures in their possession.

GGX was a LONG TIME AGO… heh.

Keep in mind that at the time we didn't know that any of the Sacred Treasures were connected with other characters.

One of which was Slayer, and the other being Justice.

In case you've not been keeping track:

Fireseal > Sol (Integrated in to the OutRage MK 2) Flashing Fang > Sol (Integrated in to the OutRage MK 2) Thunderseal > Ky Zessen > Anji Dominator > ???? Baikal > ???? Nameless 1 (Dagger) > Slayer Nameless 2 (Armor) > Justice

Saint Oratorio > Asuka R. Kreutz

It's also been implied that Dizzy has some connection with the OutRage as well… though whether or not that's been retconned is up for debate.

[gear-project]

Do all of the Sacred Treasures have a seal on them to restrain their true forms. Such as how Fireseal becomes a massive sword composed entirely of magical flames when Sol goes all-out?

At the moment there isn’t enough information to say if they do or not.

Even with something like Flashing Fang, all we really know is that it was a “part” that was used to enhance the Firesealed Sword when Sol upgraded it.

We know next to nothing about the Baikal or Dominator, or even the nameless ones, to really say what they’re fully capable of.

All we really know for certain is that each is potentially dangerous on its own, that’s why the Conclave had many of them sealed away.

Furthermore we don’t really know why the OutRage are connected with Gears in the first place.

The only real piece of knowledge stems from the Saint Oratorio Project, which Sol was originally going to be a part of a research team on.

Saint Oratorio is “technically” the most powerful spell in human knowledge, so the OutRage are, by extension, meant to “control” the spell, at least from a technical standpoint.

But again, Saint Oratorio is basically synonymous with Gamma Ray: it’s way too powerful for any one person (human or otherwise) to safely control without limiting its output in some capacity.

And considering the destruction caused by a +40 max output Gamma Ray that destroyed Japan, leaving a gaping hole in the Pacific Ocean, any OutRage part is just as dangerous potentially, no matter how small.

It’s about the equivalent of trying to understand the individual parts that make a Thermonuclear Weapon function.

[gear-project]

Are there any particular differences between the Sacred Treasures that Sol created from the original OutRage and the OutRage Armor that Asuka made for Justice?

Justice’ armor from the outset is a weapon-launching system, so much like Ramlethal’s Railgun mechanism with Calvados, it’s designed to launch a magic projectile... in this case the projectile is Saint Oratorio, the spell.

However, that system was on a much larger scale than the OutRage that Frederick built by comparison.

If you consider how large the floating cross-shaped laboratory that Asuka, Zappa, and Dr. Paradigm were flying in... the OutRage was much smaller compared to that.

This “weaponized facility” was meant to work in conjunction with Justice’ armor, which is why her Gamma Ray output was +40 times more effective, and given her large size back in 2074, it’s no wonder such a device could eradicate an entire continent in one shot.

Still, in theory, the devices that Frederick built had an even greater potential energy output when scaled up.  So even if the Saint Oratorio launching device is the OutRage technology realized, it doesn’t exceed the full potential of the handheld devices that Frederick built (meaning that the OutRage is still very dangerous by comparison).

Broken up in to the 8 pieces we now know as Jinki, however... the individual pieces probably share only a fraction of the energy output of the original OutRage device, with exception to the Firesealed Sword.

I say “with exception to”, because the Firesealed Sword was the very same weapon that Sol used to defeat Justice, twice over.  And this was when Justice had her OutRage armor equipped!

So, theoretically, the Firesealed Sword still had enough energy to overcome Justice’ enhanced armor, which is how Sol managed to eventually kill her.

Of course, the Fireseal barely holds a candle to later upgraded weapons Sol is more commonly known for using: the Junkyard Dog Marks II and III, and now a more compartmentalized OutRage Mark II!

If you consider how strong the Junkard Dog Mark III was when Sol fought Ariels, it had the energy to atomize a mountain... several times that of his older weapons.  So who knows how strong the OutRage Mark II actually is by now!

Given it’s much larger than previous weapons Sol has built, it’s safe to say he thought about effectiveness in combat as well as durability/safety considerations when using it.  Given that Ky Kiske simply dismantled the Mark III with one hand, Sol probably designed this weapon to not be so easily tampered with.

Still, I wouldn’t underestimate Asuka’s scientific ability to build weaponry that is every match for Sol’s.  Given that Asuka has been one step ahead of Sol this entire time, it’s going to be difficult for Sol going forwards when he finally settles things.

[gear-project]

What is the meaning behind the name of "Saint Oratorio" in regards to its nature as the ultimate offensive spell?

You could say that an Oratorio is a complex concert composition like an Opera, however, unlike Opera it is meant as a concert piece rather than anything involving complex costumes, props, or actors.

Another way to put it, an Oration or “speech”.

In GG Lore, it refers mostly to the complexity of the spell.

Because the Sanctus Populi were the ones who researched Magic, they actually revered the most powerful Magics in existence, hence why it’s called “Saint” (much like Saint Elmo’s Fire is also revered and feared).  Even the word Oratorio is associated with Religious practices.

Whereas there are 660 known Magics and 6 forbidden spells, known as the 666 Arcanum collectively… typically the strongest spells are considered the most hallowed.

[solradguy]

so here's a fun fact: if you do the tutorial in strive ky has specific dialogue reminding sol that its just a sparing match for pulling off more advanced moves like roman cancels and overdrives. to me this means ky and likely everyone else in the cast is aware of and can see roman cancels as they happen, making it more than just a gameplay mechanic. do you think there's a spell that allows any user to very briefly manipulate time?

There do seem to be some confirmed recurring spells that are recorded on the wiki:

So maybe RC's are a branch of the Bind spell? Like, slowing someone down could count as a type of bind, especially if the person being bound knows the counter to that spell type. The time-based magic seems really advanced and I'm not sure every GG character would have the capacity (or time) to learn something that tricky... I honestly don't really know much about GG's magic system though. It's explained in Overture but GG follows the rule of cool more than anything else so much that I haven't really felt a need to figure it out to understand what's going on haha

[solradguy]

i don't know if you're still accepting character asks but if you are; testament

Testament? More like BESTament AYYYYYY. When Testament was announced for Strive, I was listening to a lot of Testament the band at the time. It felt like I’d summoned them haha 

💀 Overall opinion of them:

I gotta admit that I wasn't really interested in Testament until they got added in Strive. Their original design isn't something that usually appeals to me, but I love their Strive redesign a lot!! It's cool seeing them back again, and that they're happy with themselves too. As a fellow LGBT humanoid, any LGBT character getting a good ending is instantly a favorite for me. Guilty Gear having at least TWO (3, if you count the Justice mistranslation) nonbinary characters right from the start with Testament and Baiken back in friggin 1998 is so goddamn cool. Even if Daisuke didn't know the correct terms for everything back then he still at least tried. Thank you Daisuke and ArcSys 🙏

💀 Gender/sexuality headcanons:

Testament is musei, which I think the ArcSys English team decided to translate to agender? I’ve never thought about what their sexuality might be though...hmm... Other than a few close friends, it kinda feels like they enjoy being alone. Maybe they’re aro/ace or demisexual? 

💀 Favorite moment in canon:

Strive reveal trailer with their new design 😩💖💖

I hope we get the bit of lore where Testament realizes they’re not under Justice’s control anymore and can have hobbies and a life of their own again. That would be really nice. 

💀 Favorite line, in canon or otherwise:

Ahh... A lot of Testament’s dialog is just like “DIE MONSTER I HATE YOU” until Strive... Their intro dialog in a mirror match in Strive is pretty good though:

(P2) "You there, arms up a bit. It's more graceful."

(P1) "Is that so? I was just thinking lower would be better."

💀 Characters I love seeing them interact with:

DIZZZYYYYYY. I think Testament would get along with Ky pretty well too. Maybe the three of them have regular tea dates together? It would be cool if Testament and post-Strive Sol got to have a conversation and work out their differences too. Testament seems to have/had a lot of resentment towards Sol because he was close with Kliff while Testament kinda got pulled out of the picture when the whole Justice thing went down. 

💀 Last thing before sleeping headcanons:

Testament’s been confirmed as being a bubble bath enjoyer so they definitely take nice long pre-bed bubbly baths when they have the time too, with music, candles, tea, and a book. The whole shebang, ya know? When they don’t have time for a bubble bath, they still have a pretty lengthy nightly beauty routine. There isn’t a place in this meme template to put it so I’m gonna put it here haha I like the imagine that one of Testament’s hobbies is making their own clothes. One of their hobbies is confirmed embroidery and a few of the others are pretty crafty too. Maybe before bed Testament enjoys browsing fashion boards for outfit inspiration ideas and has a scrapbook of ideas they’d like to try out some day. 

💀 Sleeping habits headcanons:

Probably Testament has a pretty standard bed (though one with a huge canopy) and sleeps like a normal person would, but Gears are FREAKY and I think it would be much funnier if they slept hanging from the ceiling by their feet or something wild like that. 

💀 First thing after waking up headcanons: 

Morning tea, absolutely. Then breakfast. I think Testament enjoys trying new recipes when they can so if they aren’t in a hurry that day, they try something different each morning. Testament feels like the type who would subscribe to all kinds of different topics of newsletters, several of which are from recipe/cooking sites. They have neatly hand-written index cards of recipes they tried and liked that they bring out when guests come over. 

💀 Favorite locations headcanon:

Out in nature for sure, but mostly resting by streams in forests or in the shade on a beach where they can catch up on reading and planning new projects or trips. They don’t like the mountains as much because it’s too windy that high up and it makes it hard to keep the right page open in their book. 

[gear-project]

So. what were Sol and That Man talking about when they mentioned the Saint Oratorio and how That Man could only safely use it at the Balmung Class (which was still relatively dangerous apparently)? Sorry, but the techno-babble went over my head completely.

They were talking about equipment stability correction values.

Basically take a gun for example, the chamber, powder, trigger, and all the internal mechanics have to be able to function and withstand the energy output of a bullet exploding from the chamber.

It’s the same concept, only scaled up and with even greater to near-infinite energy values.  Though the equipment used to fire the Saint Oratorio is closer to a rail gun in concept, the ‘bullet’ is the Saint Oratorio spell itself.