Lacrimae Rerum, Latin for “tears of things”, is a theory submitted by Nivora. The theory takes us once again deep into the history of Heimdallr. Beware of the dangers that may lurk underneath the imperial capital – and the spoilers it bring with it.
Roselia was born as the Hexen Clan elder as her predecessor lost her life in the battle with Dark Dragon Zoro-Agruga, who occupied Heimdallr between for a century during the Dark Ages.
Roselia’s history
As we already knew Roselia has been alive for a long time, roughly 800 years by her own words. She was born roughly 30 to 130 years after the previous elder of the Hexen Clan, who perished after the battle with Zoro-Agruga. There has not been a leader for the Hexen Clan from the time the previous leader died until Roselia was born or came of age.
The Dark Dragon of Ruination
The dark dragon, Zoro-Agruga is, as far as we know, the strongest cryptid in existence. While we do not know what Cryptids are by definition they have been connected heavily to the Curse and Steel. Only appearing during times where Erebonia is in turbulent times, times where the ley lines grow distressed thus weakening the veil between dimensions.
Similarly there are the Magic Knights who have been invented by Alberich, a person who also has been linked heavily to the Curse. The Magic Knights furthermore seem to be powered by the same power as the Curse.
In this vein there are two possibilities for the Cryptids; they are a corrupted kin of a different dimension or, and this is the line of thinking this theory is on, are creatures created by Steel to acts as emissaries by furthering the weakening of the veil of his existence.
While the ending of Sen III gives the impression that Zoro-Agruga is not a divine beast, given he was defeated without the use of Millisword, it is important to remember that Zoro-Agruga was not destroyed but sent away by Roselia. As if a purification ritual, making it impossible for Zoro-Agruga to exist in this dimension.
Modern times
During the reappearance of Zoro-Agruga in Heimdallr’s catacombs there was a sudden surge in the creation of vampires; the Calvard spies lost their sentience and became akin to vampires referring to them as Noct Familia. Roselia countered these being by severing their spiritual link letting the soul pass away.
Besides this example of Zoro-Agruga creating new Noct Familia there still is Roselia herself, being acknowledged as the only True Ancestor. In her origin story, Red Moon Rose, we read her journey and struggles as she tries to suppress her powers as the, possibly, strongest vampire in existence while hunting down victims of Zoro-Agruga’s influence on Heimdallr. She has hunt her own kin to extinction.
During the same scenes where Roselia reveals Zoro-Agruga’s lair Emma and Celine start talking about how they have notice that Roselia has been fixated on the cryptid for a long time. She has an oath with the cryptid. How does one create an oath with a cursed being? Given the historical circumstances around both existences Zoro-Agruga has been lingering around the city of Heimdallr for a long time, as long as Roselia has been living.
As a timeline it looks as follows:
- S.270 Zoro-Agruga appears from the Curse.
- The Nameless One absorbs part of the Curse and flees under this same time
- S.371 Zoro-Agruga gets destroyed by Hector piloting Testa-Rossa with the help of the Gnomes and Hexen Clan. Testa-Rossa is cursed and sealed away.
- A secret surrounding Zoro-Agruga’s existence is uncovered and the Gnomes disappear
- Sometime during this century Roselia is born
- S.947-S.952 The War of the Lions, Roselia is actively involved in the war at Dreichels’ side and is part of resealing the cursed Testa-Rossa.
- S.1000 (approx.) Roselia’s events detailed in Red Moon Rose take place.
- S.1206 Zoro-Agruga is sent away once again by Roselia.
Roselia’s whole life has been in function of Zoro-Agruga’s existence. The previous elder’s death is suspicious at best, tragic at worst. If we go under the assumption that the elder of the Hexen Clan’s spot was vacant until Roselia could take it it sounds safe to assume that the leader of the Hexen Clan only can be a True Ancestor, for Roselia is the only of its kin as far as we know.
A flaming theory
Vampire, history, a dark dragon. What exactly is my point here? For that we need to look at the following image:
This screenshot is taken at the moment where Roselia is finishing up her ritual to send Zoro-Agruga back to the dimension it came from after Class VII weakened it. Now you still may be wondering what my point is. it is quite easy: Roselia’s impression, it is sad. Surprisingly so. She seems to have regret over what has transpired in the past. What past you may think? My hunch says that it is about the fundamental existence of the dragon itself.
Fourth is the death of the Holy Beast and calamity of the Dark Dragon.
– Black Record VII, Beginning of the Twilight
With the knowledge of Sen no Kiseki III it is easy to make the assumption that death of the Holy Beast entails the Nameles One. However this same line, also links said death with the appearance of Zoro-Agruga. Perhaps it is not talking about the Nameless One perishing but rather the fire beast itself getting corrupted creating Zoro-Agruga.
When talking about the Divine Beasts it is imperative to look towards the tarot cards provided by Ao no Kiseki:
As we see the fire card has an obvious red colour scheme, this is imperative given the element it represents. The flower of choice for this card looks like a poppy, in semiotics the poppy is a common sign to signal war, derived from anecdotes of the first World War where flemish fields would get littered by them after a bloody siege. More prominently in the middle we see an older man with a crown, his eyes are solemn. The main focal point of this artwork however is the flaming sword.
Interpreting these two signs is the difficult part of this tarot and personally I view them together as a member of the Reise Arnor family, probably Dreichels, wielding the flames of war. Depicting not the Fire Beast itself but the result of its actions. As we know the fire beast is the reason the Arnor family became the imperial family after the Great Collapse. It is not uncommon to have a benevolent being acknowledging the crown of a family or person.
When thinking about the Great Collapse and the sealing of the eldritch abomination we know as Steel we also think about the involvement of the divine beasts. The Gnomes created the seven shells while the Hexen Clan created the seals and siphoned the power of Steel in said shells. When we think of the creation of the shells we know they of tremendous craftsmanship and constructed from a very potent form of Zemurian Ore (alloy?), other people have theorised that the ore of the knights came from the earth beast’s shell as it was a turtle depicted on the tarot of Lost Zem.
In the same line of thinking the fire beast could have been imperative in helping create the seals on Steel and sealing it behind the Divine Knights and in this form worked closely with the Hexen.
What I try to propose (and derail) is that the tarot does not show the fire beast itself, but the important lineage that it created and now governs Erebonia, and even tries to watch Steel. As the lineage of this family has been put in power by the fire beast it is entirely possible that the beast itself is not traditional in the common sense of a beast, but resembled a human. A human of tremendous power, origin and influence at that.
Going back to the ancestry of Roselia as being born as the previous elder “passed away” it becomes safe to propose that as a fire beast they would fit. As we know Roselia is called a True Ancestor regarding the vampires and combined with being born as the previous elder passed it might be safe to assume that only one True Ancestor can be alive at one time. At the same time the common idea of vampires is that they are immortal. The only other people who we see shown as immortal in some form are the Awakeners or otherwise closely related to the Curse/Steel and the henchmen Zoro-Agruga created during his attacks as described in the Black Records and shown in Sen no Kiseki III with the jaegers in the Catacombs. Fire has been shown as war, but it also can be seen as what is giving life. Perhaps it was Arc Rouge that animates life and as it became part of Steel it became part of conflict. Zoro-Agruga is the combination of these two concepts; it reanimates life of the death but at the same time he results in tremendous conflict, seemingly as an emissary of Steel.
So what does this mean? As the first beast is inherently linked to the idea of fire, which seems to be about animating life it is completely possible that the beast is not a beast but a vampire, and this vampire is being called the True Ancestor by records. As Roselia is the True Ancestor she is the Fire beast. As she is the fire beast it is completely possible that she is destined to become the vessel for Zoro-Agruga at its destruction. We could argue even more for this as we observe that every witch using her powers has a distinct colour scheme reflecting them; Emma’s is purple, Vita’s is blue and Roselia’s is red. As fire.
Wrapping up
And it is for this reason, that where this theory started with a screenshot observing Roselia being sad about the events of sealing Zoro-Agruga that we possibly uncovered the truth. She is sad because she knows who Zoro-Agruga is, how it pains her to know it is her own kin and how it pains her she cannot destroy it for as it would pose danger to herself becoming corrupted restarting the cycle. She does not seal the dragon because he is too strong but because it feels safer to keep pushing beyond the veil than becoming an imposing threat herself.
Perhaps Roselia is afraid her sadness will become madness.