Aroa

Aroa
Title	Researcher
Current Residence	Shangri-La
Gender	Female
Race	Sage (Sheep Anima)
Family	Aro (created in her likeness)
Affiliations	Elders of Grandis Kaling (formerly)
Enemies	Kaling
Status	Alive
Voice Actors
GlobalMS	Emi Lo

Aroa is a researcher of Odium and a close friend of Kaling.

Story

Researcher of Odium

Aroa was a sheep Anima who was chosen by the will of the world to aid the elders of Grandis. Imbued with the divine blessings of the Overseers, Aroa ascended to sagehood and received a nearly infinite lifespan. Aroa became a researcher in Odium and aided the elders of Grandis with their experiments to fuse Vessels with Godspheres in order to turn them into Adversaries, who would then fight against the Ancient Gods.

Aroa was close friends with Kaling and was hesitant about her undergoing the experiments, as she was unsure whether Kaling would be a successful Vessel. When Kaling volunteered herself as a test subject, Aroa warned her that the experiments to become an Adversary were brutal, and that she may feel unending pain or even experience death as a side effect.

Aroa also warned her that the fatal flaw of Adversaries created in Odium was that they would lose their humanity and forget their memories and their feelings for loved ones, reduced to only caring about becoming an Adversary and fulfilling their assigned destiny.

Despite knowing the risks, Kaling gladly agreed to undergo the experiments, as she had a strong desire for peace and had full faith that the experiments would bring about that peace. However, though Kaling underwent the brutal experiments, she was ultimately deemed a defective Vessel.

The Four Perils

Over time, Kaling slowly began losing herself as a consequence of the experiments. Aroa soon discovered that Kaling had created four mechanical monsters imbibed with energy. Kaling explained that while the researchers had Vessels and Godspheres, they lacked the power to fill the Vessels in order to make them stronger. She revealed that while her four machines were small, they could amass great power by consuming other small monsters, which could then give rise to an extremely powerful Adversary.

Despite Aroa and the other researchers recognizing the signs of contamination in Kaling, they turned a blind eye to her experiments, refusing to believe that the contamination could affect even the best of them. Towards the end of the war, the contamination deepened inside Kaling, erasing her morality and causing her to fall completely to evil.

After she released her four monsters - Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu, and Taotie - into the world, her creations began consuming fiends and terrorizing the entirety of Grandis with their impunity. Aroa soon confronted Kaling and ordered her to terminate her research immediately, claiming that it was a complete failure.

Aroa explained to Kaling that her monsters had become known as the Four Perils, and that they were causing great harm upon the people of Grandis. However, Kaling retorted that Grandis was already embroiled in war and chaos, even without her creations. She then claimed that once the Four Perils consumed enough monsters, she would combine them and create an extremely powerful Adversary who could defeat all the Ancient Gods and win the war.

Before Kaling's experiment could finish, however, the Adversaries defeated the last Ancient God at the site where the holy city of Cernium would one day be founded. At the end of the war, the elders and the researchers realized that they could no longer turn a blind eye to Kaling's madness, and so they had her seized from Odium and ordered Tai Yu to seal both Kaling and her Four Perils.

Following the end of the war, the elders realized that the contamination of their Vessels had spread to to both themselves and their researchers, which threatened to erode their humanity. In order to halt the contamination, the elders created the magical realm of Shangri-La, whose natural harmony would counteract the spread of the contamination.

Additionally, the elders left behind the World Heart - the original relic upon which the Godspheres had been made - in Odium, as they were unable to handle its immense power. Hoping to drain it of all its energy so that no one could misuse it, the elders fused it with Hundun, the strongest of the Four Perils, and imprisoned him as Odium's power source.

In order to drain the World Heart's energy, the researchers - using some of Kaling's old research - created the Constables - mechanical dolls made in the image of the researchers before they were contaminated. Aroa created a Constable named Aro, who was left behind in Odium with the other Constables to maintain the laboratory in the elders' absence, with the intention that the World Heart powering such a complex mechanical system would gradually erode its great power over the ages. Aroa, along with the elders and the other researchers, then sequestered themselves away in Shangri-La for eternity.

Kaling's Invasion

Eons later, Kaling attempted to invade Shangri-La in order to seize the World Heart, the original relic upon which the Godspheres had been made, which had fallen into the possession of the Adversary, who had come to Shangri-La in order to restore its drained power. With the help of several traitorous elders, Kaling unleashed the three Perils that she had reacquired, though she and her monsters were defeated by the Adversary.

Following the end of the battle, the player can interact with Aroa's NPC in the pavilion. Aroa will tell the player that everyone in Shangri-La had someone precious that they weren't able to keep. She notes that the player is the Adversary who came from Odium in order to chase after the sins that they had shamefully left behind. The player will tell her that a Constable that looks like her had showed them a research journal, which had allowed them to learn about Kaling's past.

Aroa explains that the research journal had belonged to her, and that she hadn't been able to throw it away because it had contained records of her friends, with Kaling being her closest one. She then reveals that all the Constables of Odium had been made in the image of the researchers from before they had been contaminated. She explains that she had been close to Kaling, and that she had watched Kaling's Four Perils experiment up-close.

She admits that she had many opportunities to stop it back then, but she had chosen to turn her gaze away, believing that everything would work out in accordance to the wishes of the elders and the will of the world. Noting that the player had stopped Kaling, Aroa tells them that perhaps if they were the one who had been there in Odium all those years ago instead of herself, then there might have been a better ending for Kaling. Aroa then falls deep in thought, and the player decides to leave her alone.

Shangri-La's Contamination

Shortly after Kaling's invasion, Tai Yu and the researchers began noting that the contamination of the researchers was starting to worsen, as the barriers of the realm had been destroyed in the invasion and Tai Yu's attempt to repair them had not been able to fully restore their power. As Tai Yu and the researchers discussed the strange happenings in Shangri-La, Aroa noted that there were researchers roaming throughout the seasons of Shangri-La and added that though no one wanted to say it, the researchers were exhibiting the same symptoms as Kaling in the past. Soon after, the Adversary arrived and was asked by Tai Yu to investigate the source of contamination before they left on their journey.

NPC

Shangri-La

Aroa
Location	Sinners' Paradise