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Title is an outright lie. Spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei V are numerous up ahead, too, so, if you care about that, reading the bulk of this thread is not advisable.
The Shin Megami Tensei V Additions
New Keys and Lucifer
To start off with it, I'll address the character that is most impacted by V's events, namely: Lucifer.
Early into the game, the protagonist is shown a flashback depicting the ending stages of Armageddon, the final war between Law and Chaos that happened 18 years before the events of the storyline take place, where Lucifer descends from Heaven and announces that he has murdered YHVH.
This claim is later proven to be true, as the conflict underpinning the main storyline is that, with YHVH's death, the Throne of Creation, which acted as the source of his power and proof of his dominion over the world, was left as an empty seat, and as such all of the main factions in the game want to take it for themselves and rebuild the world in their own image, which is eventually accomplished by the player character in three of the four endings.
Moreover, not only did Lucifer defeat YHVH, but later on, it is also revealed that he devoured His essence, too, and became "More than he [The Creator] could possibly imagine" in the process, which he describes as a transcendence of his former self brought about by his new insight into the nature of reality. This is alluded to both at the start and towards the end of the game, where Lucifer states he now resides "in the realm beyond the earth and heavens," and his Compendium entry later elaborates on this by saying he ascended to a higher plane of existence:
Needless to say, all of this warrants a new key. Not only for Lucifer's enlightened form, but for his Shin Megami Tensei V incarnation in general, since, in this game, even his regular state is inexplicably portrayed as having been able to defeat YHVH, a feat which he claims to have done by himself.
Note also that if we are to try and reconcile SMT V into a wider cosmology with the rest of the series, then what Lucifer defeated was one of YHVH's manifestations, and not His true form, The Great Will of the Universe. The reason behind this being a concept introduced in the game known as the "Mandala System," which Lucifer explains is a phenomenon that assures the Throne God who rules reality will inevitably fall, the world will be reduced to a wasteland, and a new God will ascend to take their place and remake the world anew, for eternity. Earlier into it, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse foreshadow that, and heavily imply that, in spite of his transcendence, Lucifer is still not free of this cycle of creation and destruction, which is substantiated by the man himself saying he still hasn't obtained the complete freedom that he desires during his boss fight, already linked above.
This is very relevant because, as explained in the game, the Mandala System itself is the will of the universe, and by seating himself upon the Throne to create the world, the protagonist is participating in that design, which Sophia previously describes as the act of abiding by The Great Will. Likewise, if he chooses to destroy the Throne, the Goddess of Creation says he is going against the The Great Will's design.
So, yes, to put it simply, Lucifer, despite transcending past YHVH and his previous self, is still very much beneath The Great Will and bound by its influence, so by no means does he scale above the likes of the Apocalypse cast, as some have likely thought when going through the game. Regardless, it should be noted he is still able to oppose it, to a degree, as his power (Or, rather, his "Knowledge") imbues the player character with the ability to make his own rule permanent and thereby free the world from the Mandala System, somehow. It's mostly some really vague hax, but still noteworthy.
V came along with a handful of other things that downgrade Lucifer too, however. More specifically, we currently rate his "Demon Lord" form that appears in Shin Megami Tensei IV as comparable to YHVH's manifestations, due to this scene, where Lucifer describes himself as "one who is said to equal God," and used as supporting evidence for that is this interview with Kazuma Kaneko, where he talks about how he sees YHVH and Lucifer as two diametrically opposite personas of God, respectively personifying creation and destruction, light and darkness, and being the Alpha and the Omega. This in turn scales to Merkabah, Lucifer's direct equal in IV, and Masakado, who scales above both of them to a pretty significant degree.
Come V, the result of that scaling chain, Masakado being above YHVH, turns out to be pretty much impossible, to put it bluntly, as the crux of the plot is that the Throne God has full dominion over creation and all of the beings within it, being as such the most powerful being of all. And this is substantiated in the game's backstory, where YHVH is said to have forcibly regressed all of the gods of old (The Nahobinos, as they're called) into lesser demonic states by taking away their Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in the True Ending, where the protagonist chooses to use the Throne's power to erase all gods and demons from the fabric of existence and create a world solely for humanity, with the Goddess of Creation stating that this is within the right of the Throne God.
Among the Gods and Demons whose existences are prohibited by the Throne in the new universe should be Masakado, so this means he can't possibly scale above it, and by extension, it means Lucifer's statement is inconsistent, and his nature as YHVH's opposite something that doesn't necessarily tie into power.
Furthermore, I should also point out that there is simply no evidence that Lucifer's squidward-lookalike form in IV is a more powerful state than the ones we see in the other games, considering that he very directly informs us that it's simply his true strength as the Demon King, a position which he already occupies in every other game. In fact, it's all but stated that, prior to the main plot of the game, Lucifer was trapped in a dormant state as a school girl named Hikaru, which he was only released from once Flynn opened the gate to the Expanse, so it is fairly clear that he's just supposed to have been weakened sometime before the events of IV, and his fusion with Walter was then a way for him to access his full power.
This means his second key should not only be downgraded but removed altogether.
As a side-note, V also reveals that, before the world came to be ruled by YHVH, the previous holder of the Throne was Baal, Canaanite God of the Harvest, which fits surprisingly well with Persona 2, where Baal states his power used to be much greater, rivaling even Yahweh's, in the far past, so he should get another key on his profile to reflect that.
Shiva should get another key, too, since before his boss fight, Aogami actually notes that his power exceeds that of all demons they've faced so far, and he himself then implies that this is because he was gathering up Magatsuhi (The power source of all demons in V and Nocturne) to enact Rudra Astra, the dance with which he would destroy the universe. Meaning that during the game, he is significantly amplified beyond his normal power, and so that should be reflected on his profile as well.
Magatsuhi and Magnetite
This is a comparatively minor addition, but still noteworthy as well.
Basically, in both Nocturne and V, a main element of the setting is a substance known as "Magatsuhi," described as the source of a demon's spiritual power, and shown to be the substance that comprises its body, as well. Further than that, V establishes that everything is dependent on Magatsuhi, not just demons, but rocks and plants, too, which echoes Nocturne depicting humans as primary sources of it.
Given those details, it is hard to not connect Magatsuhi to Magnetite, which in other games, is stated to be a substance derived directly from the Expanse, and the essence of human desires which strengthens demons and allows them to maintain their own forms. One of the supplementary manga released alongside Shin Megami Tensei IV, -Prayers-, also has Flynn talking about how it is an invisible energy that exists throughout the whole universe, giving life and substance to everything, and without which, anything would cease to exist:
As already acknowledged in the page for Cognitive Physiology, Demons and similar entities are currently treated as able to attack on both the physical and mental/spiritual/informational level, and as such bypass physical invulnerability and conventional durability by doing this. Shin Megami Tensei V basically reinforces that, since, in the context of the game, every time someone is wounded by a demon, instead of dying normally, be them another demon or just a human, they bleed out Magatsuhi, and their body quickly evaporates, implying magical and demonic attacks also target the non-physical level, rather than being strictly material, which lends into what Devil Survivor 2 sets up. As such, this should obviously be noted on the profiles.
Miscellaneous Revisions
In the first big revision done to the verse, the early-game protagonists were upgraded to 6-B based on the Four Elementals, Aeros, Flaemis, Erthys and Aquans, being abstract personifications of all natural phenomena connected to their respective elements, and the cause of them as dictated by human belief and observation. This should be downgraded.
To put it bluntly, the Elementals being Country level relies on the assumption that they are singular, individual entities that preside over all instances of their elements across the planet, which is mistaken. As asserted in the Demonic Compendium across several games, the Elementals are a race of spirits that are connected to a specific component of the world, and not the components themselves. Here are the most explicit mentions of that:
megamitensei.fandom.com
megamitensei.fandom.com
megamitensei.fandom.com
So, yeah, they are literally just elemental beings, and don't have dominion over everything their namesakes encompass. In fact, the only Compendium Entry that treats them as individual entities is Aeros' SMT I profile, which is obviously ancient and contradicted by far more recent and consistent descriptions:
megamitensei.fandom.com
As a replacement, I reckon that the verse's low-tiers should be downgraded to somewhere within Tier 7, given the existence of Pele, goddess of volcanoes, Taranis, a Celtic God who personifies destructive storms, Maruts, attendant spirits in Hinduism that also personify and control storms, Porewit, a Yugoslavian demon who lays waste to mountains, Da Peng, a bird said to be over a thousand kilometers large, and so on. I believe you get the idea now.
Parvati's justifications should also be slightly tweaked, based off something that's already in her profile, more specifically in her summary, which is Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE's Compendium entry for her:
The bolded part is supposed to reference Shaktism, a branch of hindu faith where "Shakti" is the primordial energy that permeates throughout the whole of the universe as the active principle giving life to all, from which even Gods derive their power. This was also referenced in the SMT II Demon Encyclopedia, where Shakti is listed as Parvati's name when she is interpreted as the all-encompassing Great Mother of the universe, and in Persona 5, where Ardha, the composite entity formed from the fusion of Shiva and Parvati, describes their power as being "the might of the entire universe." Liberation Dx2 then directly shows this to us by having Shakti make an actual appearance, in which Shiva refers to it as the light of Parvati.
Due to that, Parvati's profile should be updated to note she is comparable to Shiva and the power source of the Hindu Gods at her core, and to give her full-blown Omnipresence in the speed section.
And, as far as I am aware, that is it, for now.
The Shin Megami Tensei V Additions
New Keys and Lucifer
To start off with it, I'll address the character that is most impacted by V's events, namely: Lucifer.
Early into the game, the protagonist is shown a flashback depicting the ending stages of Armageddon, the final war between Law and Chaos that happened 18 years before the events of the storyline take place, where Lucifer descends from Heaven and announces that he has murdered YHVH.
This claim is later proven to be true, as the conflict underpinning the main storyline is that, with YHVH's death, the Throne of Creation, which acted as the source of his power and proof of his dominion over the world, was left as an empty seat, and as such all of the main factions in the game want to take it for themselves and rebuild the world in their own image, which is eventually accomplished by the player character in three of the four endings.
Moreover, not only did Lucifer defeat YHVH, but later on, it is also revealed that he devoured His essence, too, and became "More than he [The Creator] could possibly imagine" in the process, which he describes as a transcendence of his former self brought about by his new insight into the nature of reality. This is alluded to both at the start and towards the end of the game, where Lucifer states he now resides "in the realm beyond the earth and heavens," and his Compendium entry later elaborates on this by saying he ascended to a higher plane of existence:
Needless to say, all of this warrants a new key. Not only for Lucifer's enlightened form, but for his Shin Megami Tensei V incarnation in general, since, in this game, even his regular state is inexplicably portrayed as having been able to defeat YHVH, a feat which he claims to have done by himself.
Note also that if we are to try and reconcile SMT V into a wider cosmology with the rest of the series, then what Lucifer defeated was one of YHVH's manifestations, and not His true form, The Great Will of the Universe. The reason behind this being a concept introduced in the game known as the "Mandala System," which Lucifer explains is a phenomenon that assures the Throne God who rules reality will inevitably fall, the world will be reduced to a wasteland, and a new God will ascend to take their place and remake the world anew, for eternity. Earlier into it, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse foreshadow that, and heavily imply that, in spite of his transcendence, Lucifer is still not free of this cycle of creation and destruction, which is substantiated by the man himself saying he still hasn't obtained the complete freedom that he desires during his boss fight, already linked above.
This is very relevant because, as explained in the game, the Mandala System itself is the will of the universe, and by seating himself upon the Throne to create the world, the protagonist is participating in that design, which Sophia previously describes as the act of abiding by The Great Will. Likewise, if he chooses to destroy the Throne, the Goddess of Creation says he is going against the The Great Will's design.
So, yes, to put it simply, Lucifer, despite transcending past YHVH and his previous self, is still very much beneath The Great Will and bound by its influence, so by no means does he scale above the likes of the Apocalypse cast, as some have likely thought when going through the game. Regardless, it should be noted he is still able to oppose it, to a degree, as his power (Or, rather, his "Knowledge") imbues the player character with the ability to make his own rule permanent and thereby free the world from the Mandala System, somehow. It's mostly some really vague hax, but still noteworthy.
V came along with a handful of other things that downgrade Lucifer too, however. More specifically, we currently rate his "Demon Lord" form that appears in Shin Megami Tensei IV as comparable to YHVH's manifestations, due to this scene, where Lucifer describes himself as "one who is said to equal God," and used as supporting evidence for that is this interview with Kazuma Kaneko, where he talks about how he sees YHVH and Lucifer as two diametrically opposite personas of God, respectively personifying creation and destruction, light and darkness, and being the Alpha and the Omega. This in turn scales to Merkabah, Lucifer's direct equal in IV, and Masakado, who scales above both of them to a pretty significant degree.
Come V, the result of that scaling chain, Masakado being above YHVH, turns out to be pretty much impossible, to put it bluntly, as the crux of the plot is that the Throne God has full dominion over creation and all of the beings within it, being as such the most powerful being of all. And this is substantiated in the game's backstory, where YHVH is said to have forcibly regressed all of the gods of old (The Nahobinos, as they're called) into lesser demonic states by taking away their Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in the True Ending, where the protagonist chooses to use the Throne's power to erase all gods and demons from the fabric of existence and create a world solely for humanity, with the Goddess of Creation stating that this is within the right of the Throne God.
Among the Gods and Demons whose existences are prohibited by the Throne in the new universe should be Masakado, so this means he can't possibly scale above it, and by extension, it means Lucifer's statement is inconsistent, and his nature as YHVH's opposite something that doesn't necessarily tie into power.
Furthermore, I should also point out that there is simply no evidence that Lucifer's squidward-lookalike form in IV is a more powerful state than the ones we see in the other games, considering that he very directly informs us that it's simply his true strength as the Demon King, a position which he already occupies in every other game. In fact, it's all but stated that, prior to the main plot of the game, Lucifer was trapped in a dormant state as a school girl named Hikaru, which he was only released from once Flynn opened the gate to the Expanse, so it is fairly clear that he's just supposed to have been weakened sometime before the events of IV, and his fusion with Walter was then a way for him to access his full power.
This means his second key should not only be downgraded but removed altogether.
As a side-note, V also reveals that, before the world came to be ruled by YHVH, the previous holder of the Throne was Baal, Canaanite God of the Harvest, which fits surprisingly well with Persona 2, where Baal states his power used to be much greater, rivaling even Yahweh's, in the far past, so he should get another key on his profile to reflect that.
Shiva should get another key, too, since before his boss fight, Aogami actually notes that his power exceeds that of all demons they've faced so far, and he himself then implies that this is because he was gathering up Magatsuhi (The power source of all demons in V and Nocturne) to enact Rudra Astra, the dance with which he would destroy the universe. Meaning that during the game, he is significantly amplified beyond his normal power, and so that should be reflected on his profile as well.
Magatsuhi and Magnetite
This is a comparatively minor addition, but still noteworthy as well.
Basically, in both Nocturne and V, a main element of the setting is a substance known as "Magatsuhi," described as the source of a demon's spiritual power, and shown to be the substance that comprises its body, as well. Further than that, V establishes that everything is dependent on Magatsuhi, not just demons, but rocks and plants, too, which echoes Nocturne depicting humans as primary sources of it.
Given those details, it is hard to not connect Magatsuhi to Magnetite, which in other games, is stated to be a substance derived directly from the Expanse, and the essence of human desires which strengthens demons and allows them to maintain their own forms. One of the supplementary manga released alongside Shin Megami Tensei IV, -Prayers-, also has Flynn talking about how it is an invisible energy that exists throughout the whole universe, giving life and substance to everything, and without which, anything would cease to exist:
As already acknowledged in the page for Cognitive Physiology, Demons and similar entities are currently treated as able to attack on both the physical and mental/spiritual/informational level, and as such bypass physical invulnerability and conventional durability by doing this. Shin Megami Tensei V basically reinforces that, since, in the context of the game, every time someone is wounded by a demon, instead of dying normally, be them another demon or just a human, they bleed out Magatsuhi, and their body quickly evaporates, implying magical and demonic attacks also target the non-physical level, rather than being strictly material, which lends into what Devil Survivor 2 sets up. As such, this should obviously be noted on the profiles.
Miscellaneous Revisions
In the first big revision done to the verse, the early-game protagonists were upgraded to 6-B based on the Four Elementals, Aeros, Flaemis, Erthys and Aquans, being abstract personifications of all natural phenomena connected to their respective elements, and the cause of them as dictated by human belief and observation. This should be downgraded.
To put it bluntly, the Elementals being Country level relies on the assumption that they are singular, individual entities that preside over all instances of their elements across the planet, which is mistaken. As asserted in the Demonic Compendium across several games, the Elementals are a race of spirits that are connected to a specific component of the world, and not the components themselves. Here are the most explicit mentions of that:
Erthys
Erthys is a demon in the series. Erthys is likely based on Earth Elementals, elementals formed from the element of earth, or spirits of earth. A Earth Elemental controls one of the four prime elements that compose the world. Erthys is composed of "dryness" and "cold" essences, the basic...
megamitensei.fandom.com
Aquans
Aquans is a demon in the series. Aquans is likely based on Water Elementals, elementals formed from the element of water, or spirits of water. A Water Elemental controls one of the four prime elements that compose the world. According to Aristotle, an Aquans is comprised of "cold" and "moist"...
megamitensei.fandom.com
Flaemis
Flaemis is a demon in the series. Flaemis is likely based on Fire Elementals, elementals formed from the element of fire, or spirits of fire. A Fire Elemental controls one of the four prime elements that compose the world. It is a fusion composed of "dryness" and "heat" essences. The ancient...
megamitensei.fandom.com
So, yeah, they are literally just elemental beings, and don't have dominion over everything their namesakes encompass. In fact, the only Compendium Entry that treats them as individual entities is Aeros' SMT I profile, which is obviously ancient and contradicted by far more recent and consistent descriptions:
Aeros
Aeros is a demon in the series. Aeros is likely based on air elementals, elementals formed from the element of air, or spirits of wind. An air elemental controls one of the four prime elements that compose the world. It is a fusion of "heat" and "moist" essences, forming the basis for an...
megamitensei.fandom.com
As a replacement, I reckon that the verse's low-tiers should be downgraded to somewhere within Tier 7, given the existence of Pele, goddess of volcanoes, Taranis, a Celtic God who personifies destructive storms, Maruts, attendant spirits in Hinduism that also personify and control storms, Porewit, a Yugoslavian demon who lays waste to mountains, Da Peng, a bird said to be over a thousand kilometers large, and so on. I believe you get the idea now.
Parvati's justifications should also be slightly tweaked, based off something that's already in her profile, more specifically in her summary, which is Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE's Compendium entry for her:
The bolded part is supposed to reference Shaktism, a branch of hindu faith where "Shakti" is the primordial energy that permeates throughout the whole of the universe as the active principle giving life to all, from which even Gods derive their power. This was also referenced in the SMT II Demon Encyclopedia, where Shakti is listed as Parvati's name when she is interpreted as the all-encompassing Great Mother of the universe, and in Persona 5, where Ardha, the composite entity formed from the fusion of Shiva and Parvati, describes their power as being "the might of the entire universe." Liberation Dx2 then directly shows this to us by having Shakti make an actual appearance, in which Shiva refers to it as the light of Parvati.
Due to that, Parvati's profile should be updated to note she is comparable to Shiva and the power source of the Hindu Gods at her core, and to give her full-blown Omnipresence in the speed section.
And, as far as I am aware, that is it, for now.
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