The Site Setting: Scrutinized

[The Phantom God]

The Madou World

Inspirations
The Madou World appears to take inspiration from four distinct places.

• The climate and geography appears to have been inspired to some degree by the Amazon Jungle.
• The architecture appears to have been inspired by Late Medieval Europe.
• The mythology appears to borrow primarily from Christianity and Buddhism.
• The culture of the madou world was likely borrowed primarily from 1980s Japan, however it is heavily flavored with an old-fashioned coating.

Geography & Climate

This map depicts the part of the Madou World Arle grew up in. Note that the Forest of Light and Forest of Darkness are errenously unlisted. They surround Frog Pound and Shady Well/Satan's Villa respectively.

The Madou World lacks a lot of the somewhat cliche diversity you'd expect from an adventure game. There is no "ice zone" or "fire" zone. Rather, the climate is actually semi-consistent. There are quite a few forests to be traversed in the "world map" above, many of which are partially flooded and one of which is distinctly referred to as a rainforest. Based on these facts, it seems reasonable to assume that the region is very tropical--Likely based on the famous Amazon Jungle. There is probably a lot of rain compared to more temperate regions all year round and the temperature probably never drops anywhere near low enough to experience snow or ice. As a result, normal seasons such as summer, winter, fall and spring would not apply to the region. You wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Instead, you'd have a 6 month long "dry" season which entails a lowered humidity and rainfall; you might expect some wells or rivers to dry up. This would then be followed by a 6 month long "wet" season in which it would not be uncommon to see rain storms last for days at a time. Although it is unclear if this region closely borders an ocean, there is a fair chance it experiences monsoons much like the amazon does.

Mythology & Magic
The ancient arts of magic in the madou world were based on spirituality. It's unclear if this spirituality would have been based more on Christianity or Buddhism, as it is also unclear if this magic has ever been seen in official material before. Noteworthily, Lilith and The Phantom God utilize devastating forms of divine magic that could plausibly be a reference to the spiritual magics of old. Given how powerful these magics were, it's not entirely clear why spiritual magic was abandoned. It's possible that it is simply a lost art. Alternatively, perhaps the ancient form of spiritual magic is simply inconvenient for most people to learn. In contrast--modern Madou World magic is metabolized, most likely by consuming things of magical nature. This means that magic is stored inside a person's body to be used at their will, which may very well have made magic far more accessible to the general population than before. You wouldn't have to be some sort of priest or spiritualist to use it anymore.

As far as deities go, this seems to take on a heavy Christian tilt. The Creator is something of a unique twist on the idea of God in that he created God. It's unclear what his relationship is to God, whether God takes his orders or acts independently as an arbiter of his whims. However, it's noteworthy that when Lilith rebelled against The Creator it was God who fought her in retaliation, not The Creator. It would seem fair to say that The Creator probably doesn't step in until it is time for the Madou World's cycle of life, death and reincarnation to begin anew as this is the only time he has been observed to do so. Compounding upon that evidence, it's unclear why Arle would have been the only one capable of defeating The Creator if Lilith had fought and defeated him in the past. It is likely that she simply never fought him directly as God was the one to answer her blasphemy. Alternatively, however, she may have tried to fight him but failed.

Satan is another strong example of the Christian mythos, being the one and only dark angel fallen from heaven. Reading about how he was originally an angel and was swayed to betray God and aid humanity by Lilith reminds me of the Anne Rice novel Memnoch the Devil, in which Satan's crime against God was questioning an endless cycle of suffering on earth and desiring to interfere with God's 'grand plan' in an effort to save humanity from this cycle of suffering. However, Madou Monogatari actually predates this book and likely any other instance of this theme in video game history. Satan is also depicted as having far more selfish motives for betraying God (Lilith's no doubt fine skirt), or at least being more up front about his selfish motives compared to some other depictions. It is unclear how accurate it would be to call Satan 'good', or 'evil' or even 'neutral' as a result of the sheer weight of all the information we don't have about him.

However, we do see buddhist influence. The idea of a cycle of life death and rebirth is a good example. Japanese buddhism is distinct from Indian buddhism in that the idea of rebirth is very different between them. Japanese Buddhism, for example, does not believe in transmigration. Transmigration is what you think of when you imagine someone being reincarnated as an animal. Same soul, different body. In Japanese buddhism, you are distinctly not the same person after reincarnation. Your consciousness and much of what makes you you is lost in the transition. It would be accurate to say that your soul is reborn, but that not intact. It is believed that people carry some positive traits over to their new life, however, just about everything else is wiped out leaving a clean slate for a brand-new life to play out differently. This is consistent with what we observe between Lilith and Arle. It is stated that Arle is related to Lilith somehow and one of the theories explaining that is reincarnation. By conventional Indian buddhist logic, it should not be possible for a person and their reincarnation to exist at the same time--short of time travel anyway. However, it is possible in Japanese buddhism. The spirit of Lilith could have been a remnant of her old soul from the previous life, having been left behind when she died. Since most of Lilith would have been left behind, this creates a strong basis for it being possible for a reincarnation of Lilith to exist at the same time as her spirit.

We also see monsters with basis in buddhist mythology, such as Garuda. Garuda exists in Hindu mythology as well, however that version of Garuda is generally depicted with a distinctly more anthropomorphic appearance than that display in-game. We can observe that Garuda is the enemy of all snakes, just as in mythology, when it swoops in to eat a lamia in front of Arle.

Civilization & Culture

There are a lot of examples of where The Madou World takes inspiration from Japan. With the series created in the 80s and released in 1989, it is likely that this is simply a reflection of the culture that made the series. For example, the food. Curry rice, Rakkyo, Fukujinzuke. Curry is a very popular lunchtime meal options in Japan, to the point that you'd expect to see it in school provided lunches among other things. We can also observe that certain cultural customs are carried over from Japan. For example: It is considered very rude to bother or inconvenience your neighbors. When Arle is depicted entering buildings in Big Kindergarten Kids, she knocks politely. This is because that politeness is a lot more pronounced in Japan. In contrast, we can observe Arle casually ripping doors off their hinges and tossing them into the air before entering buildings in Puyo Puyo Box. This is a satirization of the way many popular RPGs depict their heroes as benevolent home invaders.

Also noteworthy are holidays. Of the ARS tiro, exactly none of them have a Halloween or other candy-related alt. Halloween is not a very popular holiday in japan because of the aforementioned stigma against going around knocking on people's doors to ask them for candy. If you also consider that sugar would have been too difficult for the average family to afford in Japan prior to the industrialization, the industrialization being something that is not reflected in the seemingly primitive Madou World, it becomes easy to imagine that they might not celebrate that holiday as a society. This is in stark contrast to Primp, where 3 main characters have halloween or candy themed alts. This is also in stark contrast to Christmas, which has been steadily growing more popular in Japan and is frequently reflected throughout the series, with most of the ARS trio getting a Christmas alt. It is also an ongoing joke in the series that Satan's name is just a shifted letter away from being Santa. One is left to wonder if perhaps citizens of the madou world celebrate more japanese holidays.

Primp

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Suzuran

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Pwurp

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