I would still like to use Yusuke, Haru and the others' civilian portraits whenever I unlock their second confidants, but I think once I ran out of there I have to make a decision whether I use Royal artwork or if I use some of the Confidant artworks.
Anyway, still continuing the Sae artwork. Lots of Rank 9-10 Confidants, too, and I am panicking a little because I'm approaching the end of the Maruki deadline and I kinda haven't really done a lot of his confidant! I mean, I have enough time I think, but sometimes this game just lobs a bunch of unskippable cutscene days at you, y'know?
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Ananta
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Councillor
The term 'Ananta' can refer to either the Hindu deity Vishnu, or more accurately, the serpentine naga demigod associated with him, Ananta Shesha (or Sheshanaga). 'Ananta' itself is a title that means 'endless'. It is said that that whenever Shesha uncoils, time moves forwards and creation takes place. When Shesha coils back, the universe ceases to exist. Vishnu is often depicted as resting on Shesha, and Shesha is considered as one of Vishnu's two mounts, alongside Garuda. He is the oldest of the naga, and is disgusted by the evil acts done by his brethren. Depending on the myths, Shesha has descended in several different avatars -- of which most of the mythological stories about Shesha is about. His name means 'he who remains', and as the world is destroyed at the end of each kalpa (cycle), Shesha remains as he is. Shesha is known as the nagaraja (king of the nagas), and is often depicted as floating and coiling in space, and his snake-hoods are noted to stabilize the planets. Shesha is often depicted as a massive coiled serpent with multiple heads -- varying from 5, 7, 10, to a thousand or a million.
The design is pretty simple, following the understandably much lesser-headed statue depictions of Ananta-Shesha. He's a snake with seven cobra heads, with just enough ornamentation in the form of gold rings around its individual heads and the main neck-stump that the necks grow out of. Multi-headed serpents are always cool, and there are a lot of them in different mythologies!
Oberon
- Monster Name: Unfaithful Dream King
- Arcana: Emperor
These two next ones are fairy royalty, encountered as the forms taken by the boss fights of Kawakami's Confidant quest. Oberon is the King of the Fairies in medieval and renaissance literature, popularized by (what else?) Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, though Oberon existed in myths beforehand, evolving from the character Alberich, the dwarf-king from the Germanic myth Nibelungenlied. Oberon rules over the moonlight, the fae, and dreams. Depending on the story, Oberon is the king of either the Seelie Court or all fairies everywhere. A curse he received shortly after his birth causes him to look eternally beautiful, but also no taller than a young child. Depending on the myths, Oberon (and indeed all Fae) are either benevolent, or malicious and spiteful. Oberon can be charming and polite, and vengeful when he feels he or his people are slighted. In the myth of Huon de Bordeaux, despite warnings to the main character, Huon, to not engage with King Oberon of the Fairies, Huon ends up talking to Oberon in the forests and earning his aid after his cause drew sympathy from the Fairy King.
And... well, Persona's Oberon sure is a handsome fairy king with a crown and a fancy royal sword. Oh, and butterfly wings! Those are pretty cool butterfly wings. Again, there's really nothing wrong with diversifying designs. We can't have all the humanoids look like JoJo Stands or have wheels for torsos, after all, but it also does make Oberon feel rather mundane.
Titania
- Monster Name: Scandalous Queen
- Arcana: Empress
And Titania is Oberon's wife. Queen Titania rules over the Fae alongside her husband, being described as beautiful, delicate, but also capable of great anger and spitefulness, just like her husband. Unlike Oberon, Titania is derived wholly from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, whereas the name more commonly used in folklore tales is Mab (which we covered a while back), if the Fairy Queen even is given a name. Titania and Oberon were in a dispute over who should have the keeping of a changeling boy, which ends up being the main catalyst for the story's mix-ups. Thanks to a love spell gone awry, Titania falls in love with a man whose head has been changed into a donkey (or an ass, as Shakespeare's work constantly calls it).
And just like Persona's Oberon, Titania is just a blonde lady with a dress, and the typical Tinker Bell wings fluttering around. She sure is a fairy queen! I can't really muster much excitement about her design, I'm afraid. I do think that Oberon, Titania and presumably the Pixies would all make a bit more of an impact in the Shin Megami Tensei games where they are actual fairy kings, presumably with storylines, questlines and areas dedicated to them instead of just being a form that the personifications of humanity can take. Or something!
Narcissus
- Monster Name: Self-Infatuated Star
- Arcana: Lovers
Narcissus comes from Greek mythology, and I'm actually surprised to see him make it into this game considering he's not really an 'action' kind of hero. Over a lot of other Greek gods, monsters and heroes? Really? Huh! Interesting! Narcissus's myth was pretty interesting. He's a man well-renowned for his beauty, but with beauty also came vanity. He rejected the love of everyone who adored him, regardless of gender or status. His final act of rejection against the nymph Echo caused Echo to wither away out of heartbreak into, well, an 'echo'. This act earned him the wrath of the goddess of retribution, Nemesis, who cursed him to fall in love with the most beautiful thing in the world -- himself. Narcissus fell in love with his reflection in the water. Depending on the myth, Narcissus either jumped into the water after his beautiful reflection, leading to his death of drowning; or starved while watching his reflection. His death caused a flower to grow from the spot he died -- the Narcissus flower. Narcissus' tale is also the root for the term 'narcissism' -- an unhealthy fixation with one's own self to the exception of everything else.
Narcissus' design in Pesrsona is pretty standard, a handsome near-naked man with flowing golden locks, but I do lie the nod to the white and gold narcissus flower that sprout not only from the ground underneath his feet, but also one popping up from his head. That's such a specific detail to a small part of the myth, and I appreciate that.
Horus
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Sun
Another Egyptian god! I'm not sure why this didn't show up as a miniboss in Futaba's Palace? It's not like the game is any stranger to having higher-leveled Personas showing up much earlier than you would've met their 'playable' counterparts, with Belphegor showing up as early as being a miniboss in the very first dungeon. Anyway, Horus! Horus is one of the main gods in Egyptian mythology, normally depicted as a falcon-headed man. Horus is the god of the sun, and is the son of the gods Osiris and Isis. Osiris was killed by the treacherous Set, and Horus seeks revenge for his father's death. This leads to him having a conflict with Set for supremacy, and ultimately, Horus triumphed and the other gods viewed him as the god of the day. The eternal rivalry between Horus and Set would be the reason behind why there is day and night. Horus and Set alternates between having an upper hand in their battle, and whenever Horus has the advantage, daybreak comes.
In addition to the day and the sun (a role he shares with his 'grandfather' Ra), Horus is also associated with the ruling pharaoh, particularly during the day. In life, pharaohs are considered an embodiment of Horus, and in death they would become embodiments of Osiris. There are many different depictions of Horus and 'forms' of Horus, some of which associate him with different animals, or depict him without a humanoid body at all.
Persona's Horus eschews the much more common imagery of a man with a bird-head, but instead goes for him being depicted as a giant bird. Which is something that Horus has been depicted as in Egyptian mythology, but it still feels rather bland especially since we've had multiple big birds in Persona 5 already. Horus is at least constantly shining like the sun, appropriate for his domain, I guess.
Jatayu
- Monster Name: Arrogant Vulture
- Arcana: Hanged Man
The King of Vultures, Jatayu also comes from Hindu mythology, though a fair bit less prominent than Garuda. He's depicted as either an eagle or a vulture, being the nephew of Garuda, being the younger son of Aruna and Shyeni. Jatayu is prominently features in the Ramayana myths. In the story, the rakshasa Ravana abducted the avatar of Lakshmi, Sita, and Jatayu would come to her rescue, trying to fight off Ravana. However, Jatayu was old and was defeated, having his wings ripped off. Rama, the avatar of Vishnu, found the dying Jatayu, who informed them of Ravana's location before dying. Rama would continue to fight Ravana and his forces, and would ultimately slay the evil demon king.
Ganesha
- Monster Name: Auspicious Pachyderm
- Arcana: Sun
And we'll close this off with Ganesha, one of the most prominent deities in Hiduism. And... most people just know Ganesha as the 'elephant man' god, and they're not wrong -- Ganesha does have an elephant head, and the design of Persona's Ganesha, while going for a more comical vibe with the pot belly, is pretty faithful... though I am surprised that they went with the more mundane two-armed Ganesha as opposed to the six-armed one. He's also blue instead of the common red associated with the real-world version of Ganesha.
As a deity, Ganesha is worshipped as a deity that removes obstacles, as well as places obstacles in the path of those that needed to be checked. Hence, he is often worshipped by people to ask for his blessing before they embark on something new. His cleverness and intelligence is also highlighted in many myths surrounding him.
Again, like many gods from the Hindu mythology, Ganesha has had many different myths attributed to it as the religion spread all across the world. A particular aspect of Ganesha's 32 forms that is often attributed to being important is Ekadanta, where one of Ganesha's tusk is broken off -- which is actually represented in Persona's depiction of Ganesha. And... well, beyond that, it really is hard to discuss Ganesha without going into a long tangent where I discuss the many, many legends that he is involved in. I will just close it by saying that out of the many 'mainstream' deities that are still worshipped worldwide in modern times, Ganesha does have the most visually distinct visual silhouette.
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