"The jet-black Ark, said to have been created by Alma Herself, possessed the power to calm the wind and the waves, and brought a seemingly limitless peace to Eldeen. Yet nothing is truly without limit..."
~ Black Tabula
The Ark of Napishtim (ナピシュテムの匣 Napishutemu no hako) was an Eldeen monument, computer, and weather control mechanism which serves as the titular artifact and final stage of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim. The pinnacle of Eldeen emelas technology, it is responsible for the fall of the Eldeen civilization.
In Ys VI Online: The Ark of Napishtim, it is also known as Ark of Dragon God (龍神の匣 Ryujin no hako).
History[]
The Ark as seen from the sea.
The Ark of Napishtim is a massive computer crafted from black emelas by the Eldeen, possibly by Alma. In addition to containing information regarding the Eldeen civilization, it is also able to control the weather of the entire Atlas Ocean. It is located in the middle of the Canaan Islands and takes the appearance of several massive black square columns. The inside of the Ark is made of pure emelas and its peak, called the Sacrament Floor, hosts Napishtim, an artificial intelligence that controls the entire device. The Ark can be operated by using the black emelas key, Almarion. Due to the nature of black emelas, whoever wishes to control the Ark and its key must also have white emelas in their power.
Alma sealing the Ark with the three keys.
About 800 years before the events of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, humans coexisted with the Rehda and the winged Eldeen in the Atlas Continent. A group of rogue humans, who could only create so-called ash emelas, wished to steal the secrets of making black and white emelas from the Winged Ones. They created the Galba creatures with ash emelas and used them to siege and infiltrate the Ark in an attempt to gain knowledge and power from it. However, this caused the Ark's control AI to go berserk and the sea level skyrocketed, flooding most of the Atlas Continent and creating the Canaan Islands on its former highlands.
The Winged One Alma fought the Galba creatures and created three new keys made of blue, red and yellow emelas, called Livart, Brillante and Ericcil, to replace Almarion. She used them to access the Ark and stop Napishtim from flooding the entire world, and then sublimated and used her white emelas body to seal the Ark under the Sanctum at Zemeth Island, tasking the Rehda with safekeeping the remaining keys. Alma's seal on the Ark activated the Great Vortex of Canaan, a perpetual storm to keep outsiders from entering the islands.
The Ark rising from the sea.
As a result of the Ark incident and the destruction of the Atlas continent, most Winged Ones chose to sublimate or "ascend to the heavens". Their civilization was effectively destroyed, although some Eldeen did relocate to Eresia, bringing with them artifacts such as the Black Pearl or the Mask of the Sun. The Rehda remained on the Canaan Islands in order to watch over Alma and the Ark, and the descendants of the humans responsible for this incident, now calling themselves the Clan of Darkness, also migrated to Eresian continent, some to atone for their sins by guarding the Almarion key, and others to hunt down and profit from the surviving Eldeen artifacts.
In the games[]
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim[]
The Ark seen from Windseeker Heights.
In Ys VI, breaking the seal on the Ark is the goal of Ernst, the main antagonist, a descendant of the Clan of Darkness who, before the events of the game, steals the Almarion key from Danan village and infiltrates the higher echelons of the Romun Empire in order to obtain the fleet and manpower necessary to approach the Great Vortex of Canaan. He desires to both gain power from the Ark and also use it to make up his ancestor's misdeeds in the past.
Ernst using the Almarion key to draw power from the Ark.
Ernst creates three homunculi fairies, Xisa, Jue and Sera, and sends them into the Canaan Islands so that they may shatter the Mirror of Zeme and disable the Vortex by acting as replacements for the Ark's three keys. Ernst's brother Geis attempts to stop the fairies, but is unsuccessful and the Vortex vanishes, allowing Ernst to invade the Rehdan Village and to kidnap Isha, a Rehda who has "Alma's blessing" and is thus able to control the Almarion key. Ernst finally travels to Zemeth and uses Almarion to shatter Alma's body, causing the Ark to rise from the sea, activating the Vortex once again, and unleashing the Wyvern onto the Canaan Islands.
The Ark breaking apart after the destruction of its core.
Ernst enters the Ark and gains temporary control of its power by placing Isha's body in its Throne and using Almarion, while Adol Christin and Geis chase after him. Although the Ark grants Ernst black wings in a similar fashion to the Eldeen, Adol manages to defeat him and rescues Isha. Ernst then attempts to draw more energy from the Ark, but without Isha, Almarion malfunctions, killing him, and the Ark switches to its automatic control mode. Geis escapes the Ark with Isha and the faeries, leaving Adol to destroy its control system, Napishtim.
After confirming that the relocated Eldeen civilizations are no more, Napishtim begins to deploy a huge water wall to wipe out all humans civilizations from the western coast of Eresia. Adol manages to stop the wave by using Alma's three keys to destroy the core of Napishtim at the Sacrament Floor, resulting in the complete destruction of the Ark, freeing the Canaan Islands from the Great Vortex once and for all.
Real world analogue[]
Sumerian relief of Utnapishtim during the Great Flood.
The Ark of Napishtim is based on Utnapishtim's Ark, a Mesopotamian myth which serves as the basis for the biblical Noah's Ark. In this myth, the god of knowledge tasks Utnapishtim to build a giant ark called the Preserver of Life, in order to save his family and the land's animals from a global flood caused by the gods.
The Ys World reverses this myth by having the gods be the creators of the Ark, which in this version serves to prevent weather anomalies, and then having humans cause the flood by not heeding the warnings of the gods and using the Ark on their own.
The myth of Utnapishim's Ark describes it as having walls "each 10 times 12 cubits in height", making it a 200 feet high floating vertical rectangle, explaining its appearance in the game.
Trivia[]
Eldeel's rotating globe map in ''Memories of Celceta,'' showing the aftermath of the Ark's flood.
- The Black Tabula hints that the Ark was created by Alma herself, which would explain why she took on the mission to seal it with her life after it went haywire.
- Napishtim's brief speech about the spirit of the Eldeen being "all but gone" from Eresia may refer to the events of The Final Chapter, Oath in Felghana and Memories of Celceta, during which Adol Christin destroyed the Black Pearl, Galbalan, and the Mask of the Sun, respectively. These events also led to the sublimation or final rest of Feena, Reah, Genos and Eldeel, and thus put an end to the presence of the Winged Ones and their artifacts in Eresia.
- When draining Elena's blood and regaining consciousness, Galbalan mentions his yearning to seize the Ark of Napishtim.
- In Ys: Memories of Celceta, the changes Gruda makes within the Akashic Records threaten to sink western Ispani into the ocean, a disaster that Eldeel compares to what the Ark did to his continent.
- The map on Eldeel's rotating globe at the Tower of Providence reveals that while Ark disaster flooded most of the Ys World equivalent to the Americas (the Atlas Continent), regions around its northern and southern tips may still be above sea level.
- Its name from Ys VI Online: The Ark of Napishtim, Ark of Dragon God, may be a reference to its ability to control weather, just like Dragons are said to be able to do in Asian mythologies.
