Ok well, I played through Orta and was in a place which was in Sestren, what is he? Also, I never knew who he was but my guess is he is an entity of some supernatural force like a god. Also, after playing Orta, I unlocked the Original Panzer Dragoon game so though I played through that, that told me nothing of Sestren and anything at all. I also watched the Google videos (well at least HALF of them were there) which Team Andromeda showed me of Panzer Dragoon Saga (Thank you). Then Andromeda showed me the website where to find the movies, however though I could not download them, I saw that you faced Anti Dragons, boss characters but then after that another dragon appears, he is Sestren he calls himself. I need some more information on him if that would be so greatful please? Ever since I played Orta I have been all the more fascinated with the series almost like Final Fantasy.
I’ve not long started reading through the “The technology that has will - Sestren” part of the Azel guidebook as I wanted to clear some things up myself. I’ve not got too far though - Christmas is a bad time to be in retail!
“Sestren” can refer to both the realm representing the conduits and data records of the Towers’ control network, and also to the overlord entity of that realm. I think that dragon you saw is actually Sestren, some people think that was just Sestren mimicking your dragon again… either way that entity was defeated and overthrown by part of the programming/consciousness of the Heresy Dragon, when you “meet” Sestren in PDO it is the Heresy Sestren speaking.
I only saw him on the videos but never saw the battle. I don’t have Sega Saturn.
Sestren is the governor of the plan that has held humanity in their hunter/scavenger role since the end of the ancient age. But once the Heresy Dragon defeats Sestren at the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga it takes over the system and shuts it all down, many of the Towers and processes still seem to function, but they have no central purpose in Orta anymore. Honestly there isn’t a lot to know about the entity Sestren, other than that it is subject to the Will of the Ancients, and even the Heresy Sestren evidently could not be free of that will once it took Sestren’s place. That is why it had to shut the whole operation down, and possibly destroy itself in the process.
My (and I think also SKs) theory is that shortly after PDS the eco system was about to collapse totally so azel hat to reactivate and reprogram a certain part of the towers. that’s how she could leave a messege for orta in sestren space as well. Azel is probably plugged into the tower network like Atlas who lifts the world with his shoulders.
That makes alot of sense, actually. So do you think the Heresy program is totally destroyed or merely incubating?
Regarding the Sestren-deactivation issue, I’m not convinced that we’re meant to think the environment was going to die after the end of PDS. Sestren’s destruction was presented as too much of a “good thing” for that to be the case, in my opinion: none of the characters question the idea or have second thoughts. Consequently, I doubt the player is meant to think of it as a bad thing.
EDIT: About the dragon-program-entity being dead or being asleep: I would suspect the Orta writers were treating it as dead. If not, they likely would have had it talk to the dragon in person during Episode 7, whereas they gave us a “memory cell” recording instead.
[quote=“Lance Way”]
EDIT: About the dragon-program-entity being dead or being asleep: I would suspect the Orta writers were treating it as dead. If not, they likely would have had it talk to the dragon in person during Episode 7, whereas they gave us a “memory cell” recording instead.[/quote]
Well none of us would be confused about the whole alive or dead issue if Sestren-Heresy didn’t say, “I must rest”. That implies hibernation, not death.
We’re all led to believe that deactivating Sestren is a good thing, yes. But none of the characters, not even Azel, knew of the consequences because Sestren in PDS was considered theoretical. I think lordcraymen’s theory is sound, mainly in part because of the severe storms that were present in the final sequence of the game.
I think I like that idea for Azel, I just wish we had any sort of evidence for how that ecosystem needs an infusion from the Towers to stay healthy. The ecosystem is there, it works, it maintains… it seems to be very well balanced for the proliferation of the monsters, they flourish in this state. The only thing I could imagine greatly upsetting the ecosystem is the monsters themselves getting out of control…
But if that was the scenario, one has to view the monsters as being usually under control, which not many do. shrug
Kadamose: I agree that those points make total sense from an in-universe perspective, but I was really just treating the story as a story in my post: it’s my impression that the form of the story speaks louder than its content in those places. Given the vagueness / mysteriousness of the plotline I do think those things could swing either way, though, so it’s not something I’d argue over.
However, I don’t really agree that that explanation is “sound”. It makes sense as an in-universe explanation, certainly, as it fits in with all the rules of the PD world. But I can’t think of much evidence that would suggest that explanation is the same one the PDO writer(s) had in mind, if they had any particular plan for this at all. That whole area of PDO’s storyline (“what happened since PDS”) is so monumentally vague that any number of explanations could realistically make sense, yet the script itself hardly offers any leads. The questions:
- Why wasn’t Azel able to be with Orta while she grew up?
- How did Orta end up in the care of Seekers who hated her?
- Why was Azel able to create a new Drone if Abadd couldn’t?
- Why is Edge dead (or at least terminally AWOL), especially considering that the Sestren network wasn’t destroyed?
- Why does the Sestren network now use Azel’s voice?
- Why couldn’t Abadd revive his masters?
…amongst others, are just left hanging. Smaller issues (like the Abadd one) aren’t such a problem, because they’re kind of incidental, but some of the other issues are central to the overall storyline and would require pretty extensive explanations.
I suppose my point is that the soundest explanation, in some cases, appears to be that there is no explanation.
I do wonder if the Smilebit guys had some of these things planned out, and if they were going to bring them up in a sequel if they made one. It’s annoying that we might never find out…
I like the idea that Azel came to realize she could do something to make the situation less severe than it was after Sestren shutdown. Some of Gash’s statements and others make it clear the Seekers understood that destroying Sestren would probably lead to a harsher natural environment, it was their view that would be preferable to the unnatural harshness of the existing situation.
I don’t believe the ecosystem was necessarily on the brink of total collapse, but Azel may have witnessed a great deal of hardship, and perhaps it was in the course of infiltrating part of Sestren again, trying to find out about Edge’s fate, that she found the power to both reboot Sestren with her own protocols, and to create Orta.
Azel probably had too much on her shoulders controlling the Sestren circuit, and could not raise Orta there.
Azel probably gave Gash the honor of raising Orta - but since the seekers aren’t necessarily the good guys (the empire was based off rogue, power hungry seekers, after all), he was probably betrayed and killed by his own kind and Orta was imprisoned.
Assuming Azel truly does have complete control over the Sestren network, she has all of the knowledge of the Ancients at her disposal. Abadd didn’t have this knowledge because he didn’t have access to Sestren.
Edge was murdered at the beginning of PDS and was only a temporary vessel.
Probably because she’s in control of it now.
Probably because, like the Towers, the stasis technology preserving them was beginning to fail, as well. Abadd almost seems surprised and distressed that so much time has passed and the grand plan isn’t implemented as it should. I guess the Ancients never took the wear and tear of their technology into consideration.
if I remember correctly Abadd once told me the ancients masters Abadd (the drone) tried to rise were frozen embryos of the ancients. The life supporting system failed at some point and they are all dead now. He is indeed distressed because this makes him loose his purpose, that’s why he goes nuts hen he tries to find a new purpose…
Frozen embryos? If they only preserved embryos, it would mean Abadd’s original masters would never see the new world they were going to create. Also, why would the Ancients preserve embryos if they were human? Surely there wouldn’t be much point in that since humanity never ceased to exist, unless the Ancients were different after all…
Were the embryos maybe clones, waiting to have the consciousness of the originals “downloaded” into them? And D-Unit, you may or may not know that a lot of people think that we will be implementing custom upgrades via artificial chromosomes by the end of this century, the definition of human may get complicated quite soon.
The embryo theory doesn’t really make sense, considering Abadd specifically used the word resuscitation, which means: to revive, esp. from apparent death or from unconsciousness.
- Seekers hating Orta
Who said that they hated Orta? Who said they were trying to lock her in?
- Ancient Masters
Resuscitate: to revive, esp. from apparent death or unconsciousness.
Suspended Animation: a state of temporary cessation of the vital functions.
[quote=“Abadd”]- Seekers hating Orta
Who said that they hated Orta? Who said they were trying to lock her in?
[/quote]
Orta, herself, makes it very clear (Chapter 4) that she was mistreated and neglected which is why she is so spiteful. Though, you’re right, the seekers could very well have been protecting her by keeping her imprisoned. What better way to keep the ‘seed of the future’ safe by locking it away from the world? If this is the case, it probably wasn’t a very wise idea considering Orta is now mentally and emotionally fucked over. I would not be surprised at all if Orta becomes an experiment gone wrong, and she, and her progeny, turn against the world. Now that would make a very interesting story.