I haven't seen much discussion on the name of the game itself. What are the leading thoughts about the nature of eternity, immortality, and salvation in Eternum?
I feel like this would best serve as a discussion point probably at the tail-end of the story or once some big reveals are made, particularly when we finally know what Eternum's true nature is, how it REALLY operates, which are the facts and which are essentially Ulysses corpo-bullshittery, those kinds of things.
Because right now all we have are theories and vague hints not just from the Lady in Black, but also the Syndicate, the mysterious masked man in the Ulysses party, and from the dreaded T himself. And I've already said my piece/arguments constantly in this thread that I'm not sure if elaborating upon them again is going to move the discussion.
Magical world, virtual world - looking at it as either-or is the only thing that is surely wrong.
The possible dimensions and angles of Eternum are far-ranging. An immortal elite dominating world events, a transhuman revolution, a discovery of interdimensional travel, a virtualization of human cognition and imagination...
All of those possible explanations for the wonder of Eternum feel trite on their own anyway.
Are you making an argument that all arguments theorizing the nature of Eternum are meaningless due to its transcendental nature, or are you making an argument that you find the theories limited and that people have not explored the possibility that there's more to it than just "magical world" or "virtual world?"
Look at Once in a Lifetime. Its magic was handled in a mystical and mysterious way. What exactly was the nature of the Grimoire and its power? The various endings hint at different characteristics and dynamics of its relationship with Astaroth, but nothing feels really spelled out. It could be soft magic. It could be hard magic. It could be hard magic that looks like soft magic.
I like to think it as a Tsukihime issue: this is Caribdis' first romp in making a VN, so concepts like how magic, creatures, the entire world works is a work-in-progress so to speak. That's not to say that they're not functional nor won't they be expanded upon later, but I just think that he didn't put heavy thought into the intricacies when he was still working on OIAL.
And it kinda shows, really. For instance,
we were hammered throughout the VN that the Sons of Astaroth have their claws on many parts of the world, and that Astaroth himself is a pretty dangerous threat to the MC...but honestly, everything feels..."localized," for a lack of better word. Unless one of the Sons is involved or they themselves stumble upon it, MC and co never really felt like they were in any sort of danger from others who could potentially be a pawn of the Sons (hell, there weren't even any pawns shown aside from Rebecca's fiancé and...I suppose to some extent Aiko before her heel-face turn, and that every single member of the Sons feel like they're operating on their own) and that he himself was free to basically pursue his relationships with every member of the harem.
The shadowy figure in Orion's dreams seems to say kings and pawns go into the same box at the end...but that it doesn't have to be that way.
It's death. She's referring to the fact that everyone dies. But when Orion agrees with the assessment, she suddenly makes an about face and says he's wrong, implying that there is a way to circumvent that.
I'd like to think that what she's referring to is related to the theory that Ulysses is basically keeping people who have been excommunicated alive and under their heel as NPCs, which is essentially breaking the natural order of things in Eternum and is causing problems that might rear their ugly heads in the future, but I'm open to the idea that she could be referring to something else. /shrugs
