Evillious Chronicles

The Evillious Chronicles is an expansive dark fantasy multi-media series conceptualized by Akuno-P, originally told in song using the Vocaloid software. The Evillious story is composed of interconnected series and individual stories that are either tragic or macabric in nature and employs archetypal motifs from classical mythology, medieval history, and fairy tales.

Conception
While the Evillious name was not attached to the series until later on, the first known Evillious song, Wordplay, was posted on Nico Nico Douga by mothy on March 8, 2008. Afterwards, mothy continued with new releases, including The Daughter of Evil, although the story did not earn much attention despite its whimsical tune yet peculiar plot. Then, on April 29, less than a month after releasing The Daughter of Evil, mothy posted both its sequel and counterpart, dubbed The Servant of Evil. Gaining instant popularity, the unexpected tragedy behind The Daughter of Evil solidified the two songs as mothy classics and would continue to gain popularity in the following months as he released the third line up in the series and later rereleased the first two songs using the improved Rin and Len ACT 2 modules.

With far more followers than before, "Akuno-P" began elaborating upon the plot ideas for the series in August, describing the characters and their actions in greater detail. Two months later, mothy continued posting works and released a new song in celebreation of Rin and Len's first "birthday", titled "Re_birthday" on December 27, 2008. Immediately, fan speculation connected the lyrics to the servant featured in The Servant of Evil, and mothy himself hinted at a connection, though never making a statement about whether or not it was part of the series. By this time, the idea for his Seven Deadly Sins Series was already being refined as a story mothy concepted long before was coming into fruition.

Growing Connections
Using MEIKO for the vocal performance, mothy posted Evil Food Eater Conchita on March 5, 2009 and had already finalized the idea and direction he planned for this series concerning the Seven Deadly Sins. On March 23, The Servant of Evil had reached a million views on Nico Nico less than a year since its release. Months following this announcement, Akuno-P uploaded Moonlit Bear on June 22. Fans were perplexed by the narration of the story and noticed its implied connection to his earlier work, Abandoned on a Moonlit Night. On November 28, The Daughter of Evil reached over a million views on Nico Nico Douga and the series was already expanding into musical plays and cosplay. For the theater group, mothy provided a new, unreleased song concerning the twins called Twiright Prank, sung by Rin and Len's vocal provider, Asami Shimoda. In early December, The Tailor Shop at Enbizaka was released, reaching over a hundred thousand views by Christmas.

Kicking off January, mothy continued to release new songs throughout the beginning of 2010 and began advertising Evils Forest, among his most notable albums up till that point. Released soon after its announcement was Heartbeat Clocktower, which garnered attention due to the similar characters and themes to that of mothy's other songs. Fans immediately began speculating a connection, one further strengthened by the similarities between Banica Conchita and Master of the Graveyard in the song of the same name featured in Evils Forest.

Evillious Revealed
Soon after, on July 26, The Lunacy of Duke Venomania released as the fourth installment in the Seven Deadly Sins Series and became immensely popular. Less than a week later, mothy announced the first light novel as part of The Daughter of Evil series, based upon his original classic. Written to fully explain the story of the evil princess and her servant, the novels used names that were earlier used in the play adaptation, save for a few, and was the first time the story was to be explained through an official literary media. A week after the novel's release, The Servant of Evil had already over two million views on Nico Nico Douga. One of the novel's peculiarities was the mention of "Vanika Conchita," and as connections continued to be made, mothy announced on his blog Evils Kingdom, one of his largest and most well advertised albums. Promoting the characters from the Seven Deadly Sins Series featured in the album, including two new unreleased songs featuring KAITO and Luka, Judgment of Corruption and Chrono Story. With the album's release in December and the later release of mothy's second light novel, discernible connections could be found as mentions of Duke Venomania littered both the book and the songs in Evils Kingdom.

Along with that, a character mentioned in Judgment of Corruption, Ma, narrated the tracklist in the album's booklet and explained connections between all the characters along with a timeline tying many of the songs and their events into the "Evillious" region, the setting of The Daughter of Evil novels. As connections made earlier on were fully realized, Akuno-P posted Chrono Story on his NN account in May of 2011 and supplemented it by fully explaining that it was tied to Abandoned on a Moonlit Night, Moonlit Bear, and later The Lunacy of Duke Venomania as well as confirming that the character Elluka Clockworker featured in the song was the same one that appeared in the novels. On July 13, 2011, nearly a year after Venomania's song was posted on Nico Nico Douga, mothy announced his next major album, Evils Court, continuing the story hinted at in Evils Forest and fully realized in Evils Kingdom. On August 13, The Lunacy of Duke Venomania achieved over a million views. In the succeeding month, Evils Court's tracklist fully connected the now named Clockwork Lullaby Series to mothy's other series and released its second song in the End of the Four series. Supplemented by a booklet narrated by Gammon Octo, a character mentioned as far back as the release of Evils Forest, a large amount of mothy's songs became connected and the scope of the plot grew immensely.

Peering into the Past
Following the last light novel in the The Daughter of Evil series' release in March of 2012 was followed a week later by the posting of its complementary song, much of what mothy called the "Evillious" series was told from its midway point, with context for both the times preceding and succeeding Story of Evil not delved into as deeply. Promoting his next light novel, based upon The Lunacy of Duke Venomania, mothy shifted much of his efforts into the past of Evillious' history. Labeling the songs preceding Chrono Story as part of the "Original Sin Story" mothy preceded "Act 1" with the release of Escape of Salmhofer the Witch, elaborating upon the mother of the twins in Moonlit Bear. After the album itself released on August 11, 2012, and The Daughter of Evil series' fanbook released later that month, over 800,000 copies of the first light novel series had been sold and was to be succeeded shortly after by the Deadly Sins of Evil series, beginning with Duke Venomania's story.

At the end of the year in December, mothy surprised fans with the release of Blood-Stained Switch, telling the story of a mysterious patient who suffered from "Hereditary Evil Raiser Syndrome". The song made references to the characters of the Original Sin Story and the mention of the HER condition was mentioned again in Venomania's novel released later that month. On his blog, mothy revealed the release of "Act 2" to the Original Sin Story nearly a year since releasing Act 1. A month later in September of 2013, the second Deadly Sins of Evil light novel was published. Soon after in December, the first guidebook for the series was released, including numerous short story adaptations of songs from the Original Sin Story and one prose elaborating on the creation of Evillious' world. The latestest installment also promoted two new iterations for the novel series based on Gift from the Princess who Brought Sleep and Five the Pierrot.

Setting
The Evillious Chronicles are set on Bolganio, a fictional continent in the series' world, with a majority of actions taking place along its western region, Evillious. The story spans a timeline over 1500 years long, referencing the creation of its world as the "Third Period" by the god Sickle and incarnation of the god Held as a tree over 500 years before the main story begins. The Evillious region uses a calendar created to commemorate the birth of Hänsel and Gretel, the alleged saviors of the Magic Kingdom Levianta, preceding each year with "EC". The calendar since became the region's standard dating system.

Over the course of Evillious' history, the technology and politics gradually progress in a fashion reminiscent of the Western world, developing from large empires and medieval dominions to countries and nations of a more modern era. While the Chronicles' original media, songs and song series, stand largely on their own, the story as a whole revolves around the Seven Deadly Sins and those directly or indirectly affected by them. Similarly, many of the major historical events of the region are due to the Sins' influence, although unknown in the annals of history.

In the Evillious universe, magic is an arcane and dying art that consists of supernatural power present in certain human beings. While magic is implied to be learned by anyone, only those born with a strong magical connection have the talent and potential to learn more advanced or difficult spells. Magic itself involves the manipulation of life and the elements, able to perform tasks as mundane as germinating flora to something as flashy as creating large streams of fire. For more complex spells and rituals, an incantation is often recited.

The moon is especially important in the casting of magic. Depending on the time of month when the moon undergoes different phases, magic spells can either be stronger or weaker and the very success of more difficult and powerful spells relies greatly on whether there is a full moon. After the Magic Kingdom's destruction, magic declined until few even believed in its existence, and even fewer practiced it.

Songs
Currently, there are over 40 songs connected to the Chronicles, five of which have reached over a million views on their original Nico Nico Douga uploads. After the release of Wordplay, songs pertaining to the Chronicles were released in non-sequential order and with little context or explanation beyond brief descriptions by the author.

Currently, five official song series have been named by mothy and he has released nine albums or mini-albums with Evillious related songs. Several albums provide a supplementary booklet listing the songs and their stories and have added context and more detailed information to their contents.

Series Listing

 * Original Sin Story
 * Seven Deadly Sins Series
 * Story of Evil
 * Clockwork Lullaby Series
 * End of the Four

Books
Since announcing his first light novel on his blog in July, 2010, mothy has written six light novels and penned several short stories related to the characters or events. Following the completion of his first novel series, a handbook compiling the information from the previous books was released shortly after his second novel series concerning the Seven Deadly Sins had published its first light novel.

The stories present in the light novels follow the events of the songs and expand upon the characters and settings featured in the song series. The information provided in each light novel elaborates upon the relationship between all the songs both within the series and the Evillious Chronicles as a whole. In cases where characters from the songs went unnamed or use an alias, official names were provided in the books.

Series Listing

 * The Daughter of Evil
 * Deadly Sins of Evil

Manga
Although the first mothy manga based on an Evillious song released in the form of spin-off of The Servant of Evil, it wasn't until the release of The Daughter of Evil series' second novel that Evillious manga began to appear. Most of the manga stories elaborate upon the inconsequential or mysterious events of the light novels, several being side stories that could not fit or were extraneous to the story being told in the novels.

Currently, two ongoing serial manga are released in conjunction with each other on a monthly basis by G-Blitz Comics, parodying the characters or events of The Daughter of Evil series. These are the only Evillious manga series currently in circulation. However, an adaptation of The Daughter of Evil light novels will also be released in standalone volumes, starting in February.

Series Listing

 * Comedy of Evil Project
 * The Daughter of Evil

Fandom
Following the success of The Servant of Evil, many Evillious songs have received fanmade renditions across a variety of media. Due to the simplistic song PVs used for the original releases of mothy's early songs, many fans developed their own song videos that visually told the story based on their interpretation. After the release of The Daughter of Evil series, several events interpreted by fans were shown to be inconsistent with the official story written by mothy.

Similarly, many covers and fandubs by singers and Vocaloid producers exist within the Evillious fandom and reach wide popularity on their own. Mothy has shown his support for fans' zeal and has even advertised other producers' arrangements of his songs and later collaborated with them for Evillious songs, both canon and non-canon.

One producer, Jounetsu-P, released an entire album dedicated to mothy's Story of Evil and songs connected to it. Official artists for mothy have drawn illustrations and manga portraying their interpretations of events, including Ichika's Memento. As a result, many fans of Story of Evil remained largely unaware of its full song listing or its place in the much larger Evillious Chronicles. However, with the release of official light novels and manga, fans of Vocaloid and individual Evillious songs or series have helped enlighten and consolidate the fandom to Akuno-P's story.

Themes
The Evillious Chronicles heavily stress the notion of "evil" and its underlying meaning. Often times, characters labeled as evil and have committed heinous actions serve as titular characters with many songs, novels, and manga revolving around them. Mothy often has his characters consider the morality versus the justification of their deeds and even has several contemplate the exact meaning of evil, especially when confronted with complex moral dilemmas.

The reasons for each character being evil varies greatly, with some character's being portrayed and recognized as more sympathetic while others are completely monstrous. The series also supports the notion that tendencies to commit evil are sometimes ingrained in a character's personality and makes them more vulnerable or lenient to commit negative acts against humanity, and in one case are simply born with evil. Magic usually plays a role in triggering these tendencies and fully realizing the results of following those sinful lines of thought.

The individual stories within the Chronicles play upon the concept of free will versus fate, as character actions are given real consequence in the inevitability of the future. Rooted deeply in the themes present in tragedies and macabres, many characters desperately attempt to escape pain they have suffered or the loss of a loved one, committing evil to reach their ideals. Due to the consequences of their actions, their attempts backfire and lead to either the character's death or even greater loss, and ultimately are left in the same place from where they began.

The gear is symbolic of such free will, as one person's actions or life are represented by a gear in motion, causing a chain reaction that leads to the turning of other gears. The individual cogs form the overall direction of fate and actions that have been done cannot be changed, reflecting the consequences. Despite this, themes of redemption are present in mothy's works, with some character who regretted the evil person they were given a degree of forgiveness from others.

Coinciding with its influence of tragedy and macabre, mothy draws upon many aspects of classical mythology, including Judeo-Christian and Greek names and stories. Many aforementioned themes are derived from these mythologies along with fairytales and other classic literature that mothy twists to show a darker or more twisted outcome.

The setting of the Evillious region itself parallels the European continent's classical and medieval history with many state's geographic location and culture reflecting real world countries, particularly in their feudal societies and influence from the Roman Empire. Similarly, the Bolganio continent's Eastern region is reminiscent of Asia and Evillious' perception of the area is reminiscent of European's view of the mysterious and largely unexplored Orient. Monarchies and other imperial powers present in Evillious are generally discredited and many members of nobility with large amounts of power are condemned as tyrannical or corrupt, including many of the owners of the vessels of sin. Remnants of aristocracies in the more modern Union State of Evillious are portrayed as leading to corrupt government systems.

Conceptualization and Origin

 * The Chronicles' name is derived from the Evil's Kingdom booklet's timeline labeled "Chronicles of Evillious", listing events occurring throughout the series.
 * Due to the series origins, many of the characters reference their representative Vocaloid in name, appearance, aspects of their personality, etc.

Curiosities

 * Mothy often refers to the Chronicles as simply the "Evillious" series.