Lunasia

"The truth is much more complicated than you think."

This article is written from a Lore perspective. It contains spoilers and different reference materials might be contradictory.

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There are two characters in the world of Girls' Frontline with the name Lunasia.

Neural Cloud model

The Lunasia lookalike photographed by the Stasi in Belgrade in the early 2060s.

Lunasia von Oberstein was the eldest daughter of Rudolf von Oberstein and his wife Hanna, and the older sister of William von Oberstein, who searched for ways to bring her back from the dead. Long straight black hair is a trait shared by characters close to the original Lunasia.

Biography of Lunasia von Oberstein

Lunasia was born in Bonn in 2037, and her brother ten years later. Her family called her Luci. In the 2040s, she often visited the lab of Lycoris and Persicaria at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, which was directed by her father, before the von Oberstein family was forced into hiding after Rudolf's political standing fell through due to his connection to Relic Technology. In an undated memory found in Avernus, Lunasia was forced out of the family mansion by her father to be brought to an unknown destination. Rudolf invoked that this unclear situation constituted a necessary sacrifice, but Lunasia only saw it as her father tormenting her for his own gains. Years later, it was well-known in the entourage of Rudolf that he missed his daughter dearly, and William and Lunasia's names and faces had been scraped off the painting of the von Oberstein family tree in the abandoned mansion.

During the latter half of World War Three, Lunasia's mother suffered from mental issues and a faith crisis, and the family fragmented after its transfer to Heidelberg by the US Army in 2049. Lunasia's mother took her children to join a cult based in the Rhine region only known as the “█████ Evangelical”. During the early 2050s, the group became the largest postwar cult in West Germany and the young Lunasia was appointed as their "saint" by her mother. The group was monitored by the Stasi and was eventually violently disbanded by the government in what is called the First Purge. Lunasia's mother was killed and Lunasia handed her brother over to the government, but herself escaped their control and she later reappeared as a member of a humanitarian youth movement assisting survivors of the First Purge in the Yellow Zone. In 2050, she was arrested by the German government while her group protested a surplus food collection operation. She was diagnosed with mid-stage ELID and admitted to a Berlin medical facility in December 2050. On New Year's Day 2051, she was transferred to Switzerland for further treatment at her father's request.

There are contradictory sources about what happened to Lunasia after this point.

According to Persica and memories from the Virtual Image Consciousness of Nytos and the Neural Cloud of ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1, Lunasia died from illness shortly before the end of World War Three (this time frame is also alluded to in Secret Documents#Speculation on the Decline of Religions) while staying at the family's manor in Berlin, and her little brother took care of her in her final years.

Stasi sources suggest that Lunasia joined back her youth movement. The agency debated Lunasia's threat profile at the time: her status as the eldest daughter of Minister Rudolf von Oberstein and political inclinations was worrying, but this was tempered by her psychological disorders and inability to live beyond the confines of the former cult's rules. Stasi intel initially determined she was not involved in political activism, but she was eventually deemed a threat after becoming a leader of her movement and forming connections with movements in key cities. According to Stasi files, Lunasia was killed in a city bombing during the Second Purge.

William's quest

After Lunasia's death, William sought to avenge his sister, and resurrect her in a form that would also enable him to use Relic Technology. As a member of 90wish, he contacted Lyco and Persica and provided them with a human brain imprint to make a Neural Cloud from it, but after they discovered Lunasia's memories in it, they refused as themselves and Rudolf were opposed to such experiments. William then used a more devious plan to reach his goals.

William first had a Pike node delivered to Lyco after he joined Sangvis Ferri. The OGAS code base in the node enabled Lyco to create Elisa in 2054. As he continued to enhance her, he realized she was capable of interacting with Relic technology, and that he was being manipulated by William. Lyco sabotaged parts of her code, but was killed in retaliation during the 2061 Butterfly Incident.

William also created biological clones of Lunasia, cybernetically enhanced their bodies and modified their brains to develop a Neural Cloud, before implanting them with an OGAS consciousness. Subjects who could not withstand OGAS were discarded and called Isomers, while those whose mind remained intact were called Nytos. However, no Nyto was considered sufficiently close to the original model. During the course of 2057, William sent non-augmented biological clones of Lunasia to attack several Griffin & Kryuger bases. Through G&K's connections with IOP and 16LAB, Persica realized the nature of the attackers and made scans of their brains herself to use as a base for her research. Wanting to match Lyco's research progress, Persica decided to ignore that she was being manipulated by William, and even shared the scans with Lyco to use as a personality baseline for Elisa. Persica claimed the human origins of the data model made it closer to a soul, but the data had a limited number of use. She used the scans to create AR Team: first ^AR M16A1M16A1M16A1, then ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 and ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II, then ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1, and finally ^SMG RO635RO635RO635. The initial results produced Neural Clouds which could not be duplicated and backed up, effectively making them “mortal”. Persica reduced the amount of Lunasia's personality in RO635's Neural Cloud and managed to make it more stable and backup-compatible.

In the early 2060s, the Stasi encountered a woman that looked like Lunasia in her 20s meeting an unidentified man in a cafe, as the agency was investigating a Paradeus signal in Belgrade. The case was chalked up as someone assuming the appearance of a dead citizen to exploit the fact that Germany did not share its databases with other countries of the Pan-European Union.

After all personality limiters on M4A1's Neural Cloud were lifted by Persica, Elisa, Dandelion and the Isomers identify her as Lunasia since her Neural Cloud is the most perfect recreation of the original model yet (though M4 herself rejects this name) while AR-15 had an excellent but imperfect Neural Cloud. The voices in Zion recognized that M4 wasn't Lunasia, whose soul had been broken into countless pieces. Dandelion has also been recognized as Lunasia by Nemhran, as well as ^SMG ErmaErmaErma by Sana (albeit for the sole reason that Erma had reached the Lake of Consciousness).

Awakening

The “complete” Lunasia awakens.

“	To reforge the world into a place with no sin, no darkness, and no violence. Just like my garden, everyone will be plants thriving in sunlight, each vibrant and beautiful in their own way... —	”

After using the Starfish to cause a Reverse Collapse during the Paldiski Incident in 2064, M4A1 was transported to Tarot Paradise and captured by the entity calling itself Laplace's Demon, whose ultimate goal was to make Lunasia complete by having M4 merge with her. Under the guise of ^RF Martini-HenryMartini-HenryMartini-Henry, who was the maid of the Oberstein children, Laplace had M4A1 live through memories of Lunasia's family, convincing her that her life as M4A1 was a delusion she used to escape her final responsibility: to create a world without violence and pain by destroying the current world. She then convinced her to sacrifice the other entities captured in Tarot Paradise, including M16 as well as the other members of AR Team arrived from another world line, saying that their sacrifice would grant her the power to accomplish her destiny. Though Laplace's minions in charge of herding the sacrifices schemed against each other, their plan to let AR Team reach M4 in hopes that they would willingly sacrifice themselves for the sake of turning her into Lunasia would prove to be right.

M16 failed to bring M4 back to her senses, while Elisa encouraged her to become Lunasia. Elisa also claimed that Lunasia was a constant between world lines. M4 eventually returned to her senses and Laplace's identity was revealed when M16 used her power as the Wheel of Fortune on them. Talking through M4, the actual, still incomplete Lunasia commanded AR Team to kill Laplace for taking over Tarot Paradise. When Laplace's Demon sacrificed the last of her power, M4 was brought in contact with Lunasia, who commanded her to accept her death and merge back with her for the sake of the world. The incomplete Lunasia admitted that she lacked emotions, and that there was no meaning to saving the world unless she acquired them by merging with M4. Lunasia demonstrated her ability to perceive and influence causality by showing to M4 that the Commander and AR Team were fated to be killed by Morridow and Narciss in Germany, and offered M4 to merge temporarily so she could save them without making a final decision to sacrifice herself. Lunasia's powers enabled M4 to save AR Team and the Commander and help them for a short time during their chase for the Iaso's Boxes.

During this time, M4/Lunasia expressed an interest in “saving” the captive Morridow. During a private encounter, she agreed to “fulfill Morridow's wish”, leaving her in possession of one of Lunasia's memories, where she visited William in a garden during the exile imposed by their father, and apologized that her feebleness was keeping William from his research. Morridow later claimed to William that she knew how to contact Lunasia again and he rewarded her. M4 returned to Tarot Paradise after her encounter with Morridow, but realized that the Commander's lifethread had only been slightly extended, so M4 made the decision to merge with Lunasia in order to create a world line where all of her loved one would survive, and the rest of AR Team sacrificed themselves to grant M4 the power necessary to complete the merge.

“	–M4A1: Promise me, when I lose and forget everything, when I no longer remember the wishes that everyone has entrusted to me... You will carry them and keep going in my stead. You will help me make our wishes come true. -Lunasia: We have a deal. —	”

The apparently complete Lunasia awakened in the Lake of Cognition, connected to the Evangel Axis in Avernus. Shortly after, Dandelion accessed the Lake of Cognition during Operation Muromets, and Lunasia left her with a cryptic message: “Only through connection did I finally understand that I could never become her, whom others looked forward to. But if she chooses to accept our everything, and abandon her hopes of becoming perfect, that too is what I desire. The flowers of despair are about to bloom. There is little time left”. The encounter left Dandelion in a sort of dream state and she later warned ^SMG ErmaErmaErma that she would soon hear “it” like her after reaching the depths of the Lake of Cognition, and would then have to hand over something to her.

Lunasia's name appeared on a fountain located at the core of the Summer Garden virtual space created by Arthur Hume, along with another fountain labelled Nadia. When ^SMG ErmaErmaErma and ^SG Stevens M520Stevens M520Stevens M520 accessed the fountains after damaging the Summer Garden, only Nadia's fountain was active and they didn't interact with Lunasia's fountain. According to the collection of Erma's lost memories, “the complete Lunasia” (完整的露尼西亚) was one of the three entities, alongside “the false Nadia” and “the future Erma”, who could reach the “Heaven” sought by the Nytos. Nadia and Lunasia's fountains were included in the remains of the Summer Garden that Erma gave to Dandelion before Erma sealed her own fountain.

Gallery

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  Concept arts of this illustration can be found in the artbook of Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery. The artist comments that the original concepts looked too much like an evil AI, and so the final artwork is closer to M4A1 as a result.
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  ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1 (right) meets the Lunasia clone (left) who served as the imprint for her Neural Cloud after Persica removed her personality limiters.
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  Cartesian Theater key art.
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  Lunasia in Angular Gyrus.
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Butterfly symbolism

The “Blue Butterfly” collectible from Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery.

Lunasia is visually associated with blue morpho butterflies. In the folklore of many cultures (such as Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Aztec, Japanese and Irish cultures), the butterfly is associated with the soul of the dead and rebirth, while in other tales from England, the Philippines and Japan, it is seen as a bad omen. Both symbolisms are relevant to the quest to resurrect Lunasia and its dire consequences, which is arguably the core of the story of Girls' Frontline.

Chinese culture associates butterflies with specific concepts based on two well-known stories:

• Butterflies represent dreams and the blurring between reality and fiction based on Zhuangzi's The Butterfly Dream. In the story, Zhuangzi dreams he is a butterfly, and upon awakening, he wonders if he is in reality a butterfly dreaming that he is a man. This symbolism can be applied to the identity conflict between Lunasia and ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1.
• Butterflies are also associated with the afterlife and liberation based on Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, also known as The Butterfly Lovers. This is a tale of tragic love ending with two butterflies emerging from the tomb where the lovers rest after death. This symbolism is relevant to the powers displayed by Lunasia after her death.

Blue morphos sometimes appear in contexts only loosely related or unrelated to Lunasia, such as in the Virtual Consciousness Image in the Nightmare level of Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery or ^MG ZB-26ZB-26ZB-26's designs.

Three Goddesses test subject

This Lunasia is one of the three test subjects produced during the Three Goddesses project in 2078, along with Noylu and Jefuty. Her DNA is a mix of human and GAVIRUL genes, and a reproduction of a test subject from the earlier Black Lily and White Rose project, Rose.

When the Three Goddesses project fell through due to political tensions in 2085, Lunasia went under Antarctic Union control, while Noylu fell into the hands of the Union of Rossartrism Nations Coalition and Jefuty's whereabouts were lost in the confusion. However, both Noylu and Lunasia fell short of initial expectations when they failed to activate relics sites. Both factions then went to search for Jefuty. Lunasia's situation is unknown as she was not involved in operations Bakery and Tinder like her two sisters.