User blog:Servant of Evillious/Evillious History: Ma

This blogpost is basically a longwinded explanation for who I believe, or can speculate, Ma is and what her intentions are so be warned. It's been a long while since I've made a blogpost for my enjoyment and I'd like to take a break from being an admin for a day and just be a fan (so no jabs that I'm not keeping busy!).

Introduction
While I've only been around for a year and half, I can tell that Ma's been a conundrum for fans on both sides of the globe for quite a while. In the west however, she's been even more of a confusing mess because of the amount of misinformation (or simply a lack of any information) about her compared to the Japanese audience.

Ma's identity is indeed supposed to be a mystery, for sure. But, there's a lot of misconceptions about how that mystery has been presented to us. A lot of fans have been having Evillious info thrown at them all at once (as any who've read through the wiki would know) and lack a lot of the context of when and how this info was presented and what was known at the time that it came out.

For that reason, I'm going to be going through the history of Ma, or rather, what material has included her since the beginning. Keep in mind that while we've had a lot of time to update our translations and information, anything I say is subject to change with these translations. For that same reason, I'll be taking the sequential order of this information into account while building this post's perspective of Ma.

Now, shall we begin?

Evils Forest
Ma's first major appearance was in Evils Forest, of that we can now confirm. In that album's booklet, we are introduced to "Ma", a playwright and only friend of the Collector, Gallerian Marlon.

At this point, mothy's different songs and stories all being connected into one mythos, Evillious, wasn't yet revealed and fans could only speculate about the connection at most (given that Heartbeat Clocktower was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga with a PV at this time).

Ma's then stated to disappear soon after, with all of Gallerian's collectables she inherited, into the Millennium Tree Forest. As you progress through the booklet however, Ma becomes the narrator and begins speaking to the reader as one of the "intruders" to the forest.

Here, she reveals she has been given a new name since her disappearance, the Gardener. On top of which, she plays with the reader, telling them some rules of the forest which she afterward just casts aside as meaningless; but, she doesn't finish her jest without one last rule she forgot to mention:

"Don't trust what people say in this forest."

Now anyone reading this can probably tell the irony of that statement, and how it implicitly states Ma is not to be trusted. It's a very important detail to keep in mind as we continue on.

Outside of the booklet, Ma is only given one other reference in the song (as the "Gardener" this time). In the Master of the Graveyard song, we're told by the Servants how their Master find's the Gardener's ambitions amusing.

Despite being portrayed as a rather fiercesome, vile, and devilish woman herself, the Master of the Graveyard is said to be obeying the Gardener's will for the time being. However, she does plan to inevitably betray and devour the playwright.

Why is this album important? It automatically establishes Ma's entire character. She is portrayed as ambitious and deceptive, yet playful and mysterious.

Evils Kingdom
We don't see Ma again until Evils Kingdom, which was mothy's first major album after the release of The Daughter of Evil: Clôture of Yellow. I mention this specifically because the first light novel introduced Elluka Clockworker, who was again mentioned in Evil Food Eater Conchita (revised) which released less than a month after the novel.

With the release of Evils Kingdom, mothy basically confirmed most of his songs took place in the same universe and that all the seemingly separate stories were in fact connected. And who was the one to confirm this essentially? Well, Ma of course.

Like Evils Forest before it, Evils Kingdom has Ma become our narrator to the booklet, speakng to the reader again as if we were an intruder. There, the intruder is made to watch films with the playwright, who naturally decides to give her two cents on each film.

During this period, fan only had the Evils Kingdom booklet to rely on as a source for this new, gigantic Evillious world and its long history. In that source, we only had Ma and an accompanying timeline to explain events, Ma being the only one to elaborate on them in any level of detail.

Likewise, Ma brings up a few interesting tidbits. For one, she seems to know a lot about Elluka, things that seemingly only Elluka herself could've known. She also is the first to mention the Demons, though avoids using the term, and how Elluka's mission is to collect them (which, conveniently enough, seems to be what Ma did in Evils Forest).

And on top of all that, when Ma is finally asked by our intruder who she really is, Ma simply gives us a code to crack. You crack the code, and you get told her true identity is " Ma gician".

Now everyone reading this is probably gravitating tot he same conclusion: Ma is Elluka. In fact, it's almost so badly lampshaded, it might as well not be a mystery. Elluka's a "magician" (ie, a mage/sorceress), and of course she would know a lot about her own history. She's also the only immortal known in the series at this point. It all fits!

But It Doesn't
Yeah........ there's a problem here. For one, Ma being Elluka raises eyebrows about why she's using that name, why she's acting so deceptive and potentially malevolent, and why is she pretending not to be herself?

At the same time, there's no reason to argue against it. Ma is our only source of info at this point and there's no reason to believe she'd mislead us..... except she implies just that in Evils Forest.

So yeah, Ma's entire position in Evils Kingdom, while providing important details to the Evillious world, is completely fallible from an in-universe perspective until more definite sources corraborate it. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for that to be the case.

Evils Kingdom was the first and only source to have explained Elluka's unnatural youth. When Wiegenlied of Green came out a few months later, mothy was sure to skip around the nature of how Elluka maintained seemingly eternal youth and life, having Mariam and Elluka's evasive banter really tell us nothing.

At this point, Ma's established the idea that Elluka body swaps out of a necessity to maintain her young and immortal appearance as her mortal bodies eventually begin to decay. Of course, the problem is Ma says Elluka needs to do this every few hundred years, yet also claims Elluka had Lukana's body for over 700 years before it began to decay and she needed a new one.

That's a huge gap in her claims, but Wiegenlied is sure to never outright contradict that claim either. The same goes for Gumillia. While Ma actually never makes a reference to her at all (and she only gets mentioned once in the timeline portion of the booklet), nothing Ma says actually contradicts Ma's words. Other minor details also follow suit, leaving Ma's claims as a bit odd but nothing that you can say is out of place.

Once mothy actually posted the Judgment of Corruption and Chrono Story songs from Evils Kingdom on NND, things actually get some support. With Chrono Story, we see three woman, the first two definitely being Elluka in her two different forms and the last implying it may be Elluka in Kayo's body, possibly Ma herself.

As 2011 rolled on, it's only natural that any fans that only knew of The Daughter of Evil light novels and Evils Kingdom, not even reading Evils Forest, would think Ma was Elluka without a doubt and that was probably mothy's intention, given the timing.

The Advent of Irina
At this point, I want to remind everyone that mothy is a storyteller and like most storytellers, is trying to tell us the tale in a way that's most interesting and enticing for us as fans to both keep us interested (and willing to give up our money) and provide a quality experience to his creative world.

So naturally, the timing of his releases and the patterns we find in retrospect help us realize how he's duped us in hindsight and kept us guessing by throwing things we never expected.

Well, Irina was unexpected.

Long after we got Evils Kingdom, two DoE light novels, and a new batch of songs including Gift from the Princess who Brought Sleep and Five the Pierrot, we're given Judgment of Corruption ~A Court of Greed~. Here, the album's booklet reinforces an important fact brought up in Evils Forest: Ma is untrustworthy.

Calling her "abhorrent" and one who decieved Gallerian Marlon (who Ma called her "friend" in past material) to collect the vessels of sin. It also was the first album to include Recollective Musicbox, a song which seems to tell us of a man, his love, and his little sister. And while no material truly elaborated on the story at the time, we can now say that it changed everything.

In August of 2011, we were given the Entr'acte of Evil worldguide.

The worldguide served mainly as a means to help fans understand the series. It kept all sorts of timelines and plot explanations for the individual stories (which could be percieved from the released material) and tried to help fans understand what mothy had been secretly building upon for all this time.

It also contained Twiright Prank, which just so happened to introduce us to a new character: Abyss I.R.

What's interesting about Abyss I.R. was that she was clearly a malicious figure who strongly opposed Elluka, and was admitedly a deceptive schemer and overal vile person. Sounds a lot like Ma's past descriptions, no?

Furthermore, Abyss I.R. acted like she had a grudge against Elluka, even calling her "older sister" as if they were close. What could this old woman with a red cat have to do with Elluka? And how come Ma conveniently omits a mention of this mage being responsible for the events?

Well if Ma is Elluka, it would make sense that she wasn't aware the Demon from TP was the Demon of Gluttony, not the Demon of Pride. Both Elluk and Ma puport this belief so it makes sense! But, this also weakens Ma's accuracy on events and the existence of Abyss I.R. added a new element to the plot.

Also, whether fans began making connections to Recollective Musicbox at this point, I can't say. But they definitely did once Evils Court got released early the next month.

Evils Court
This album was perhaps the biggest release since Evils Court. It gave us a new perspective on events compared to past booklets through the eyes of a new Gardener, Gammon Octo. On top of that, it gave us a chance to look at Ma uncolored by her own words.

And what do we see? Well Gammon's booklet tell us that he sometimes helped Ma with her screenplays, using his Purple Dream ability to peer into the past. While that may seem insignificant, it means Ma doesn't necessarily have to have been Elluka or even present at any of the events she mentioned in Evils Kingdom to know so much about them (assuming they're not lies).

We're also given the implication that Gammon could learned stuff about his own relationship to Ma, though what that is implying, I can't say with any certainty. Still, Elluka was known to interact with Lukana Octo, Gammon's implied ancestor. Naturally, that could be the connection, given what we knew at the time.

The songs in the album and Gammon's commentary on them add just as much intrigue to the debacle. For one, Ma is revealed to not only had a hand in directing the Master of the Graveyard, but the Master of the Court as well. This implies she wants this alleged "utopia" to occur, whether it was originally her idea or Gallerian's.

And in the same booklet, she is mentioned to be visibly displeased by Gammon bringing forth a rather grim future for the Director Doll if this utopia were to happen, though none of the other inhabitants seem to take it very seriously. Not only does it imply Ma was taking it seriously, but was worried what effect Gammon's actions would have.

As Evils Forest already told us, Ma has an ambition here, one that she seems to want fulfilled. Was she worried of the future Gammon foretelling coming to pass, or did she know it would and was worried Gammon would sway the Director Doll and ruin her plans? Curious.

The only other mentions of Ma are when Gammon contrasts Gallerian's behavior to hers, despite acknowledging she was the cause of it. This pretty much reinforces Ma as a manipulator and deceiver.

Otherwise, she has a brief speaking role in Capriccio Farce (portrayed by Megurine Luka, just like Elluka); in that, she just exposites that the vessel of Wrath is probably in the Master of the Hellish Yard's hands. She's also said to be an "invader" among the collectables who hides her true intentions, which adds to the idea she's both human (or at least not a vessel of sin) and a deceiver.

At this point though, Recollective Musicbox confirms the story follows the battle between Elluka and her younger sister-in-law, Irina. While the story never says who won, Gammon says it was obvious and says it can't be known if the loser "disappeared" from history, at least until she tells him herself.

Of note, this implies that Irina was the "loser" who seemingly disappeared (given Elluka was clearly alive while Irina was never mentioned), and that she was still alive and could tell them. Most curious.

What should be mentioned is that mothy established a new character, "Julia Abelard", with the Gift and Pierrot songs. In the latter, he also confirmed that Julia wrote a letter to Elluka, signing the name "Irina Clockworker" as well. Not only did this confirm Irina was alive, but added reason to believe Abyss I.R. was the woman too.

The Daughter of Evil's End
Afterward, Capriccio Farce got a PV in October 2011, though nothing really new came of it. Besides getting an appearance, the song PV had profiles posted during the intermissions, which mostly recapped information we were already aware of from past material.

The only new thing was that her "true identity" was said to be "Kayo Sudou" though. Of course, if Ma was Elluka, then that also makes sense because Elluka swapped bodies with Kayo according to Ma herself and most basic timeline information. But at the same time, it makes you wonder why mothy uses this evasive answer rather than outright saying she's Elluka.

And it only gets more complicated from there. With the release of Praeludium and Praefacio, we finally get a fuller picture of Ma and her potential identity. At this point, we learn there are two apparent immortals: Elluka, and Abyss I.R.

Of those, Abyss I.R. was probably already speculated to be Irina, who seemingly survived long after the events of Praefacio. Abyss herself was revealed to have been the red cat always accompanying her, seemingly has a longstanding grudge against Elluka, is a powerful mage that steals other bodies as her own, and has extensive knowledge and use of the vessels of sin. On top of all that, she's collecting them.

So wait, a malicious and deceptive immortal mage who desires to collect the vessels of sin? This sounds an awful lot like Ma. But, Ma's never mentioned to have a cat of any kind near her and there was so much indicating she was Elluka!

Yeah.... things aren't really working out that way. A lot of the afformentioned inconsistencies between Ma's claims in Evils Kingdom and what plays out in the light novels paints very different pictures about both Elluka and what occurred, even if just Ma's ommitting lots of that information (even if Elluka was present or able to learn from others about it).

The Final Chapter
Praefacio also gave us another new insight to Ma through its final chapter, fastforwarding us to Gallerian's time. In this little skit, Ma is trying to coax Gallerian to support her in finding the vessels of isn but to no avail. She seems to threaten his family if he doesn't cooperate, but laughs it off as "not her style".

Then, she leaves, giving him one final chance to change his mind before he ignores her. And that's the last we see of Ma in the chapter. But as always, this story requires lots of context. Gallerian is awoken to learn his family's ship returning home was attacked by a freak giant octopus.

At the beginning of the light novel, a similar freak giant octopus attack happens to our heroes on the Royal Victory. Gumillia reveals that this kraken was a Very Amazing Octopus that was conjured and directed into attacking them. Gumillia also says only Elluka could have summoned such a creature.

This immediately raises eyebrows to Gallerian's family just being attacked. If anything, the beginning of the light novel was meant to foreshadow the end, as it's all too convenient Gallerian's family dies in this suspicious accident, which is the reason Gallerian begins helping Ma collect the vessels of sin.

And why does Gallerian do this for Ma? Because Ma just so happened to mention that collecting the vessels would grant a wish for the collector. Once again: How convenient.

The catch though is how similar this was to Master of the Court's statements about Ma telling her utopia would result from them collecting the vessels of sin. If Gallerian was being decieved by Ma with this, chances are she deceived the MotC too.

And just as likely, Ma probably killed Gallerian's family using a Very Amazing Octopus!

"So she's Elluka!"

Nope. What Gumillia wasn't aware of (or didn't want to mention) was Abyss I.R.'s existence and ability to also summon this creature (while using Elluka's body and its immense magical potential, of course).

"So she's Abyss I.R.!"

Possibly but there was her apparent defeat at the end of the light novel. Of course, there are hints that she survived, given that she took obvious interest in Germaine (portrayed by MEIKO, who Julia Abelard/Irina Clockworker was also portrayed by in Five the Pierrot). Julia was also rumored to be a reborn Germaine in Gallerian and Ma's conversation, which adds fuel to that fire.

This would arguably be the start of mothy really shifting his indications about Ma in a new direction. After Evils Kingdom, he sort of kept everything sitting as is. But, now that Praefacio finished and revealed Ma and Abyss I.R. in a new light, the gears were turning again. To top it all off, Ma claims Irina collected the vessels of sin to grant a wish. Regardless of whether that's true or not, why would Ma know such a thing? Could it be......?

The Extra Chapter
What better way for mothy to really start giving us clues than to add little chapters at the end of his light novels featuring Gallerian and Ma, loosely connecting to the plots of each novel as a pseudo-epilogue?

Praefacio's gave us the first hint about Ma, and the Lunacy novel confirmed we would get more. Now in August 2012, we did fet the Epic of Evil fanbook, which basically confirmed Irina Clockworker, Julia Abelard, and Abyss I.R. were all the same person. It also set us up for the Lunacy novel by having The Daughter of Fog allude to Abyss's connection to the Duke.

I mention this because these confirmations become very relevant for Ma's next appearance. Here, Gallerian finds her taking care of "Michelle", who Ma clearly knows is the Clockworker's Doll but purposefully plays along with Gallerian's belief that she's his actual daughter.

Ma also alludes that she promised Gallerian he could save his daughter from her injuries/condition if he collected all the vessels, and claimed he could only talk to his daughter if he kept the Marlon Spoon on his person (a peculiar thing for both Ma to say and Gallerian to believe).

At this point, mothy's now established "HER" which the monologue at the end of the chapter says continues to exist. While this may refer to the surviving bloodlines that could develop the condition, it may just refer to actual HERs still being around.

In that case, Irina was said to be the last HER and unless others spawned after her, its only natural to assume that means Irina is still alive during Gallerian's time period (and very convenient this narration is happening from Ma's perspective).

And then there's her treatment of the Doll. Ma states that she is the Doll's mother, which Gallerian doesn't think is very funny. But, given Ma's established playful and deceptive nature, what if this is true?

Gammon states in Evils Court how Julia Abelard was probably the one who created the Doll, and therefore could be considered the parent who gave birth to the Director Doll. The fact this extremely specific wording is getting paraphrased by Ma is another convenient event (if a coincidence), especially since Gammon points out how the name "Clockworker's Doll" should give away who the creator is

The Lunacy novel also established that Irina did make the Doll in the Gine workshop in Lasaland, so like the Very Amazing Octopus, this event seems to have been set up earlier in the novel to make a connection later on this with this extra chapter.

But perhaps it's just another coincidence. Still, the entire events of Lunacy as Ma portrayed them in Evils Kingdom are a bit off. Elluka didn't take Lukana's body because she was tortured by her experiences with Venomania, she did it to help Lukana get rid of I.R. going after her (a character Ma conveniently omitted).

Even then, Lukana's ability to predict dreams was shown to be a natural ability of her bloodline, not a result of Lust magic as Ma claimed to be. This only further weakens Ma's accuracy on events and makes her all the more unreliable.

The Digestif
A relatively short chapter compared to the past ones and also one that doesn't seem to feature Ma at all. It's just the Demon of Gluttony (or rather Banica Conchita) watching Gallerian with some narration pasted over it.

But that doesn't ignore the very important mentions. In Waltz of Evil's interview with mothy, its mentioned that Ma appears in both the Praefacio, Lunacy, and Evil Food Eater Conchita novels. Yet, her name never pops up in the prose and there's no apparent indication she's anywhere throughout the light novel.

Except in the Digestif chapter at the end. There, its mentioned how Banica's met with Irina several times over the centuries, though she had a new appearance each time. Then the prose says:

"Well, tonight too."

That night as well? So Banica's met with Irina as recently as the night Gallerian collects the vessel? But when? Why? How?

Well, in the Lunacy novel, Ma was there to confirm the Venom Sword Gallerian believed he collected was the real thing. It would only make sense she'd do this for all his vessels to make sure they made no mistakes.

It's undeniable at this point that the narration implies Banica met with Irina that night and Ma is definitely a likely candidate once you take the previous hints into consideration, especially if she's confirmed to make some appearance in that light novel via the interview.

We also get another contradiction in Ma's claims from Evils Kingdom. Elluka never met the twins serving Banica and therefore couldn't have struggled with getting the Glass of Conchita back from them.

Likewise, how could she have her happiness after defecting to Lucifenia be shattered by Alexiel and Riliane's births if she never knew what those twins looked like? Clearly, Ma's entire chronology on Elluka's actions and feelings are wrong, and we still have no evidence that Elluka's bodies ever decay.

And, given the release of OSS Act 1 and Act 2 already happened at this point, it was made celar that Irina was the one who was supposed to become the Ma (Mem Aleph) before being "defeated" by Elluka during the Levianta Catastrophe and the mage's subsequent resurrection.

Ma, you're starting to look quite guilty.

But How?
Regardless of whether the evidence hints Ma is Elluka or Irina, the question still remains on how? More than likely, we won't know til its revealed. mothy's been evasive on answering who Ma is.

Ma's last appearance was Waltz of Evil, where she had a superficial role in the JoC Side Story and was mentioned once in an interview by mothy. There we're told she may be one of the long-living characters we've already seen in the series, which doesn't tell us any more than what can already be deduced.

But we can probably guess where Ma's origins might take place.

The Duel of Merigod was first mentioned in Evils KIngdom's timeline, where its result wasn't really told to us and since then, hasn't really been given much elaboration.

We know it was the final time we can confirm Irina appearing in any media and was a battle between our two heroic mages, Elluka and Gumillia. According to the Fanbook, Julia Abelard is defeated there, but this is Germaine's aftermath section, not Abyss I.R.'s/Irina's.

After that, we basically have to rely on Evils Kingdom's timeline and Ma's words for the next major event in Enbizaka, where we can't confirm if Irina pops up again there or not.

Gloom of Held confirmed that our earth god didn't want Elluka and Irina to meet (which they inevitably did in Praefacio) but nothing major seemed to come of it. At least, nothing major happened that warranted Held's absolute refusal of them coming together. Irina stole the body but Gumillia inevitably helped her get it back and nothing major seems to have changed about Elluka because of it.

However, Gumillia was tasked to protect Elluka should Irina ever encounter her, which makes the Duel of Merigod all the more interesting. On top of that, Gumillia is said to disappear and we're given no confirmation on what happened to Elluka after the battle (at least until her sudden appearance two hundred years later in Enbizaka).

Elluka was also confirmed in Heavenly Yard to be a vessel for Levia-Behemo, which Irina has an expressed intrest in taking from her. Even so, Irina's goals and ambitions are still shrouded in mystery so its quite possible all these plot points will play out in the Duel of Merigod.

Conclusion
So what do I think? Imo, Ma is not Elluka. While mothy clearly intended for fans to think this early on, this was before Irina ever appeared and when fans were still unfamiliar with Evillious as a whole. It made Ma's words the perfect opportunity to start twisting fact and fiction early on to still give him room for plot twists.

Similarly, the evidence indicating Irina is Ma has only grown since her introduction to the story and more events continue to unfold.

And to put it simply, I can't imagine mothy killing off the villain he's made integral to the plot so early on, especially with all these indications she's still alive and well after the Duel of Merigod. Unlike Elluka, Irina is known to constantly change her name and is the character that Ma most act likes.

At the same time, we don't really see Irina ever act as playful or innocent as Ma does, though that's ignoring the fact Irina appeared like a normal girl (and not a HER) to everyone for most of her life until killing Elluka. Since we never see how Irina acts before this critical event, its quite possible Ma's more "friendly" demeanor is just how Irina would act. She also portrayed a more "benevolent" figure as AB-CIR, so it's not like its impossible for the HER to pretend to be something she's not (so long as she's still pushing her more malicious agenda behind the scenes).

Yet, these are childish and whimsical traits Elluka is shown to have, which also gets supported by Ma being portrayed by Megurine Luka and having Kayo Sudou as a body, which is stuff Elluka is regarded as having. Ma also lacks a red cat following her around, which has been a necessity for Irina up til this point.

Of course, the best compromise would be that Ma's some combination of Elluka and Irina. Perhaps Irina's found a way to leave her cat body and instead take a human host, such as Elluka? Perhaps Maand Elluka inadverdently combined into one new being and Held was afraid this would happen?

Given how evidence has been indicated though, I have a much easier time believing Ma's Irina pretending to be someone else like she's usually done. It makes sense from both a writing perspecitve, and a story perspective.

Either way, we'll probably get a confirmation, if not another heavy load of hints with the next light novel and album coming this summer, which will likely at least touch upon the Duel of Merigod, if not outright portary the full battle.

And make no mistake. Ma is clearly a villain. From the very beginning, she's been teased as not being a nice person and her goals are clearly less than for the betterment of mankind. Whatever her goals are, utopia is not one of them (at least, not in the way she makes it out to be).

And since she's the only one to speak on what Elluka and Irina wanted, the latter of who she basically ignores exists except when twisting to her own ends (and is wrong about the former many a time), I have no doubt she's directly connect to them. We just need the confirmation on the who's, what's, how's, and why's.

Until then, enjoy what you've read (and get a medal for reading it all) and keep it in mind when considering your own theories about Ma. My best regards~

Servant of Evillious (talk) 23:22, June 29, 2014 (UTC)