I’ll post the translation of that first scan soon. Since the translator didn’t know anything about the Panzer Dragoon games, the result needs to be reworded a bit, but even so it already answers some very important questions about the goal of the two major Ancient Age factions and even the Heresy Dragon’s purpose. Quite interesting indeed 
Here’s the (edited) translation of p.144-145.
Azel and Sestren
Azel, the girl that becomes the key to the Azel incident. Who is she, exactly? To answer that question, although it will be explained later on (p. 154), Azel was kidnapped from the Restorative Faction by the Destructive Faction. She was a Drone (a humanoid with an artificial body and soul) that acted as a trigger for the Tower’s destruction. Moreover, she had the ability to open the gateway from the deepest part of the Tower to Sestren. Without her, it would have been impossible for Edge to go to Sestren, even with a Dragon. It is possible that the Destructive Faction installed this ability in her for the time when someone who could destroy Sestren would appear. Regarding the existence of Drones, even though we also have proof from records of regenerative tools left by the Destructive Faction, Azel is the clearest (?) form of Drone that ever appeared.
Ability of the tower
Currently (at the time this book is written), two types of Towers have been confirmed. The first one is the literal ?tower?, the vertical building that Edge attacked during the Azel incident. This one’s function is to regenerate and maintain the land’s surface, and to keep the land fertile.
The other type was seen during the ?SHELCOOF incident? (go to p.147). This one is called The Ship, since it’s shape was similar to a battle ship floating in the air. Its function is to regenerate and maintain the atmosphere, absorbing polluted air and purifying it inside, enabling circulation. It can be concluded that this Tower creates water, generates rain, creates seasons, and preserves the ocean.
Either type has the ability to produce monsters (lit: “offensive living being”). For the monsters, humans are food, thus making them a tool to control (“to weed”) mankind’s overpopulation. This is the way the Tower supervises humanity. As long as the Towers exist there is no way for humanity to be free from the spell of the ancient civilization.
After Sestren function stop
Because of Edge?s actions, Sestren was destroyed. All of its functions supposedly stopped, but there are no fatal changes in our body. Maybe this is because the effect of the Tower purification in the land and air still remains. It is also possible that after thousands of years, micro-organisms and vegetation that can purify land and air were created as a side effect.
Or it is also possible that after the Azel incident, the destroyed Sestren controlled only a fraction of the Tower, and other duplicates enable it to continue its activity. To prove this theory we will continue to study every area in the continent.
From now on, even if it will take a different form, humanity will protect the essence of the ancient civilization’s moral view and continue Production Activity. We will continue and never give up until the planet’s soul very end.
Birth of the dragon
Among the monsters produced by ancient civilization, Dragons are the strongest. Even though they were developed by both the Destructive and Restorative Faction, no mass production was ever recorded.
The reason the Dragon appeared during the Azel incident is related to the condition of the dying moments of the ancient civilization. In the final conflict of the ancient civilization, the Restorative Faction, which was beyond the grasp of technology, had the upper hand. The Destructive Faction believed that the war would end in the victory of the Restorative Faction, and mankind would be destroyed. According to their opinion, humanity would be driven to extinction, and only Sestren would remain, purifying soul and environment for the Tower.
But at the end of the war, the will of the Destructive Faction, ?The soul of the planet, and the continuity of human existence should not be controlled by technology?, was left as a formless attack.
The attack (?The end of humanity has to be decided by humanity?) was then successfully programmed into Sestren while it was still being constructed. But when Sestren discovered the existence of the program, it was viewed as bug and was purged. In response, the program created the Dragon. The Dragon was the remaining will of the Destructive Faction, but it was formed with an organic body and soul.
Picture text
p. 144 above
The Tower that Edge attacked.
Usually, to counter attackers from the outside, the Tower would create mass amounts of monsters. Azel had the power to manipulate this function even from outside the tower. Because of it, Edge was able to attack the Tower.
p. 144 below
SHELCOOF
The ship-shaped floating tower. There is no further confirmed information about this moving tower.
p. 145
Environment restoration activity by the Tower
Along with the function of purifying land and atmosphere, it releases monsters to reduce the human population.
Wow. That is some seriously detailed information about Panzer Dragoon Saga’s back story. Just awesome. 
Thanks for arranging the translation, D-Unit.
It’s surprising how much of this new info is consistent with many of the beliefs people on these forums have held about the Ancient Age. I love the new details about Shelcoof (it creates seasons!), as well as a more formal categorisation of the ancient factions (from what I can tell, Restorative Faction = Abadd’s masters, Destructive Faction = ancient rebels mentioned by Lundi).
About this paragraph:
I’m assuming they’re talking about the Destructive Faction’s moral view on freeing the world from the will of the ancients? I gather they’re talking about letting humans continue to reproduce (production activity) unhindered by the Towers.
[quote=“Solo”]About this paragraph:
I’m assuming they’re talking about the Destructive Faction’s moral view on freeing the world from the will of the ancients? I gather they’re talking about letting humans continue to reproduce (production activity) unhindered by the Towers.[/quote]
That part confused me as well. It’s odd that they use the term “Production Activity” or “production operations”. Sounds like a term the Restorative faction would use (“You may continue Production Activity, but we’ll release a bunch of monsters if you overdo it” ). So I’m not entirely sure if they’re talking about the Destructive faction’s view rather than the Restorative faction.
Kimimi’s translation however paints a different picture:
But this omits the part about the ancient civilization’s moral view. I’ll try and ask the translator to review this.
I’d also like to give my view on the information gained from the translation. First of all, it confirms several things which we had only assumed to be true up to this point. At the same time, the text was also written from the viewpoint of what seems to be of a person in the game’s world. So again we’re not always presented with a definite answer, instead we sometimes get multiple theories.
Still, we do get answers to some very important questions. For example, the “rebel” faction did indeed create the Heresy Dragon program and basically added the program to Sestren while it was under construction. Instead of an actual virus, it seems it was more of a “extra” process in the Sestren system which had a goal that at one point conflicted with the rest of the AI. Sestren then decided to purge the conflicting code from its system so that it could continue completing its goals, leading to the events seen in Zwei.
Shelcoof was designed to purify the air and regulate the atmosphere. While this may seem obvious, I don’t think it was ever outright confirmed. It also means the vertical towers situated on the ground didn’t actually purify the air, but only the ground. It also hints at the possibility that Shelcoof wasn’t the only flying Tower. It also confirms the Tower did in fact use monsters to keep the human population in check.
The Destructive or “rebel” faction apparently also created dragons. I’m guessing Atolm is one of those, as there’s no indication he was captured together with Azel.
Also, could you guys scan p. 154 and p. 147 of the PD Saga guidebook as well? They apparently contain more information about Azel and Shelcoof. The two scans for the walkthrough for episode 4 of Zwei don’t seem to be all that interesting though, so I’d rather get those other two translated.
I’m guessing it was written from the Seekers’ viewpoint, since the writer knows about Edge’s mission to defeat Sestren. It’s also consistent with Zadoc and Lundi’s knowledge of the rebels.
Possibly a modified version of Sestren. At least, the two programs seemed very alike in appearance. Although not necessarily similar in functionality, the heresy program appeared to have taken over part of Sestren’s role at the end of PDS (“the will of the ancients is now with me”).
It would make sense if they had designed Atolm from scratch. Atolm’s appearance is quite different from the other dragons (mind you, so is the guardian dragon), whereas the heresy dragon’s forms feel closer to that of the Restorative Faction’s dragons (the dark dragon). I imagine both the dark dragon and the heresy dragon were derived from the same bio-technology.
I agree with focusing on Panzer Dragoon Saga. Shadow has all of my books at the moment (I don’t have a scanner), so he might kindly scan those pages for us. Shadow?
That’s interesting. What grabbed my attention was that both factions created dragons.
Azel may have been a cutting edge drone too.
I also wonder if all the creators of the Towers went into hibernation or just some of them.
Just amazing, i really can?t wait to see the rest of it translated.
Also, its about damn time for a new game, such an incredible back story, a game happening on the ancient age would be a blast!
Sitting here reading the translations at work when I should be working. I just can’t get enough of these games lately. My affinity for these games has only increased over the years. Thank you for providing the translations.
I’ll scan anything if you can get it translated. In fact, I’m so dedicated I’ll scan things twice… these pages were already uploaded, but I’d forgotten until I’d scanned them again. Fail.
Thanks Shadow.
Thanks Shadow. Can you tell me how many pages there are like that in the Panzer Dragoon Saga guide? Meaning the ones with a lot of text and actual information about the game, excluding the actual walkthrough of the levels.
Pages 32 - 140 wouldn’t be very interesting, that’s the guide stuff. 4-32 and 140-155 look to have all the juicy bits.
Thanks for the info. After the initial scans have been translated, we’ll probably have a better idea of whether or not the rest is worth translating.
This is all amazingly useful stuff. Panzer Dragoon has such a ridiculously detailed extended universe, but it’s all so obscure and difficult to find. Any and all translation of background materials would be HUGELY appeciated!
great info, thank you guys 
I can use this very well in a certain project 
some ideas already pop up <3
I wonder though. Shellcoof was destroyed and layed down on the shore, this somehow finally makes sense, I mean, why did the dragon appear in the crest at the end ? I always wondered what this is trying to tell me.
I think now I can understand, if you breath air there, you breathe the purified air , which is continued as a work from the dragon directing shellcoof now ?
After all, he is still with me .
My view is that the crest was a sort of dragon nest. The dragon created the crest around himself. He either died or re-emerged as the dragon in Panzer Dragoon. When Edge finds the baby dragon in Shelcoof, that is a young dragon left behind by Lagi, an asexually produced clone. This is the subject of much debate, however. Have a read of the “Different Dragons Theory” and “Dragon Life Cycle Theory” on TWOTA for the competing views. Also, the Attached Dragon Mind Theory offers a third view.
That’s an interesting theory. It fits well with the dragon overtaking Sestren’s role at the end of the Panzer Dragoon Saga. However, would Shelcoof still be able to purify the air in its crashed state? Wasn’t the point of Shelcoof being a flying tower so that it could perform its task throughout many parts of the sky?
[quote=“Solo Wing”]
That’s an interesting theory. It fits well with the dragon overtaking Sestren’s role at the end of the Panzer Dragoon Saga. However, would Shelcoof still be able to purify the air in its crashed state? Wasn’t the point of Shelcoof being a flying tower so that it could perform its task throughout many parts of the sky?[/quote]
I think I remember reading somewhere that after 1000 years of terraforming, the towers had at some point produced (micro?)organisms capable of continuing the purifying work on their own (like how yondo worms can purify polluted water). I imagine Shelcoof’s patrolling around was partially to spread those organisms, and partially as a literal patrol since part of its function was also to keep mankind’s population down. Even ground I imagine it could keep seeding the surrounding atmosphere, and maybe even seed a few storms to carry it around.
It’s not like the towers were doing that good of a job to begin with after all. The reason the planet is still a wasteland is because Sestren stopped giving a toss and focused entirely on bio-weapon production instead of terraforming or even resuscitation. That might even have been why Shelcoof was patrolling around 24/7 to begin with.
That sounds like Nausicaa, although the stories are so similar it could be from Panzer Dragoon as well. In Orta, even after the deactivation of the Towers, the world was still habitable.
Lundi’s journal describes the Towers as having worn down and not functioning correctly, but this may have been a translation error. The areas near the Towers and ruins were quite fertile, so perhaps there were not enough ruins to cover the whole continent. That would explain the barren parts of the land in between the ruins.
I’d wager there’s probably a Japanese PD fan out there… who is laughing at us right now.
But who cares! I was blind and now I SEE!
Great job guys.