Was there a Dark Force before PS1?

I've long toyed with a theory that there might have been an untold chapter of the Phantasy Star story that takes place long before PS1. We know, thanks to Lashiec's return for PSIV, that servants of evil can be revived long after their death. Something that is often overlooked, however, is that the first instance of such a revival is actually in the first game.

We are told early in the game that Medusa has been "reborn." Isn't that an interesting term there? If she was "reborn," then she must have been dead in some fashion before, yes? Later in the game we learn she was defeated by Perseus long ago. Clearly this is a reference to Greek myth, an area PS draws much from. But within the context of the game, it means some close approximation of that myth - in which, Perseus kills Medusa - played out on Palma.

That begs the question, why was Medusa reborn? What is so special about her? My theory is that Medusa is the "original" Lashiec - a servant of Dark Force, restored to life by evil power. Like Lashiec in PSIV, she takes a "vital" item - the Laconian Axe for Medusa, the Eclipse Torch for Lashiec - and hides it away in a dungeon. This could, by extension, mean that Medusa worked directly under an ancient form of Dark Force, one we have not seen yet. Perhaps Perseus defeated it.

What do you think of this idea?

I've always been open to the idea that there's been goings on with Dark Force before PS I. After all, isn't Dark Force just some manifestation of the Supreme Darkness' hatred etc? That's what I've always thought.

As for Medusa, I always thought it was a bit odd that she was there, but your explanation does make sense of her existence. And then there are also the Greek influences as mentioned, but a version of her more like Lassic, a servant of Dark Force. Plus I forgot she was even reborn to start with. That would also explain why the mirror shield was buried to start with.

So yeah, I'd probably also say Medusa was an older version of Lassic, so to speak, that was killed by Perseus who probably also defeated Dark Force as well. Makes sense really. Though anything else that happens before PS I is open to speculation.

Also, I was surprised when I ran into Darkfalz, albeit much easier to kill, in the edge on my way to kill the Supreme Darkness.

So Medusa was first located on Motavia it seems. Perseus probably was not a Motavian, correct? Well assuming he did not, that must have seemed odd to those people to have some one else who didn't look like them (yet not so strange appearance-wise), all by himself.

I don't think Perseus could have done the job single-handedly. A couple of Motavians or so likely accompanied him on the road to defeating Dark Force! It just kind of sucks, what with there being no interplanetary transportation yet. Meaning no PSIV-ish party.

BTW hey, I didn't really run into any Prophalluses on my first time through IIRC. I think I might have after that, but eh. I can't wait to fight them in the hell mode! (And with crappy gear on my Wii playthrough which will probably be sooner.)

Well yes. It's just as stated in Le Roof's explanation:

Once every one thousand years, when the planetary seal is at its weakest, the Profound Darkness, albeit a part of it, seizes this momentum and enters back into the normal dimension to destroy the Algo Solar System under a physical manifestation called Dark Force.

So yes, the Protector tribes have been repulsing Dark Force way before Alis' time.

Those are some interesting points you raise, OhNoHumans.

We know, from the Compendium book and Generation 1 game, that Palmans had spaceship travel between the planets for only about 200 years before Alis. Palman towns existed on Motavia for only about 140 years. Since Perseus' shield is on Motavia and that is known in Sopia, he must have been able to travel between the planets after Sopia was built if he buried the shield personally. That would make Perseus' adventure very recent, relative to PS1.

I guess Perseus' Dark Force could have been the one for AW 284, exactly 1000 years before PSII. That's just 50 years before PSI, so it could fit with that.

However, the Compendium book says Paseo was founded in AW 183 near "Lake Perseus" on Motavia. That suggests Perseus was famous before AW 284. Maybe Perseus had a wizard companion who knew some other way to travel between the planets? Kind of like how Rune is able to go from Dezoris to Motavia in PSIV without any explanation. That would allow him to interact with the Dezorians and Motavians.

So what you are saying, was that Dark Force is the same one Alisa battled? It is not entirely unreasonable; Perseus and his companions could have died leaving Dark Force considerably weakened.

I assumed that, by the way the villagers spoke of that event, it was ancient history. But maybe not so much so. That all gets kind of confusing.

thepeaguy wrote:

Well yes. It's just as stated in Le Roof's explanation:

Once every one thousand years, when the planetary seal is at its weakest, the Profound Darkness, albeit a part of it, seizes this momentum and enters back into the normal dimension to destroy the Algo Solar System under a physical manifestation called Dark Force.

So yes, the Protector tribes have been repulsing Dark Force way before Alis' time.

What that means was that Dark Force previous to that point were likely weaker somehow, we know that La Shiec weakened the seal in that game. And they better have been, because Espers were quite a rare breed, and techniques didn't exist yet to my knowledge. A party like Rolf's would have lacked versatility (being only powerless Palmans).

Without interplanetary transportation, it would come down to whichever planet the Dark Force manifested itself on. But assuming the Dezolians had Raja's magic way back when (plus the Eclipse Torch), it would've been best for everyone if Dezolis was where it appeared most. If they lacked magic, well, they still had laconia, the eclispse torch and maybe even the aeroprism!

OhNoHumans wrote:

So what you are saying, was that Dark Force is the same one Alisa battled?

It could be. Alis' fight is only about 57 years after a Dark Force should have appeared in AW 284 due to the millennial seal weakening as thepeaguy pointed out. That's close enough that the millennial DF could be the one Alis fought.

The Compendium says Lashiec summoned his Dark Force after weakening the seal, but it isn't very specific on how he summoned the Dark Force. We could take it to mean he summoned one already in Algo or that he summoned another one through the seal. I always assumed it was a new one, but that may not be correct.

OhNoHumans wrote:

I assumed that, by the way the villagers spoke of that event, it was ancient history.

I assumed the same until you mentioned space travel. That does make it more confusing, but after thinking about it for a while, I feel sure Perseus' story was meant to be from ancient times. I think this is the key detail: Paseo is the first Palman city on Motavia and was founded in AW 183, next to Lake Perseus.

The lake where Perseus' shield is hidden was already named after him one hundred years before before the millennial mark in AW 284. If Medusa was tied to a Dark Force as the pattern of Lashiec suggests, she and Perseus must have fought at least 900 years before Paseo was founded. There is still the question of how Perseus' shield reached Motavia, but that could be answered in many ways. Perhaps a predecessor of Rune and Lutz was involved. Many Perseus didn't bury the shield there himself; someone could have done that after space travel was invented.

I do like the idea of Perseus teaming up with Motavians, though. Especially since Motavians have Alsulin, which Perseus would have probably needed at some point.

You bring up an interesting point about lack of space travel and what planet Dark Force would manifest on.

I've actually occasionally thought of making a fan game with separate parties on each of the planets, with it eventually turning out that DF had separated himself into separate parts to influence each of the planet's "Lassic" in turn. The end third of the game would have LeRoof summoning the three parties together and then explaining what's at stake.

That's at least one possible way past manifestations could have worked.

thepeaguy wrote:

Well yes. It's just as stated in Le Roof's explanation:

Once every one thousand years, when the planetary seal is at its weakest, the Profound Darkness, albeit a part of it, seizes this momentum and enters back into the normal dimension to destroy the Algo Solar System under a physical manifestation called Dark Force.

So yes, the Protector tribes have been repulsing Dark Force way before Alis' time.

That sums up my thoughts on this discussion. I had thought about what Le Roof said, but Pea beat me to it.