Persona has a very unique take on the theology and mythology which its parent franchise has so often tackled. Each game has a new interpretation of existing myth to offer, and so the franchise as a whole has received its own page to discuss this.
Unmarked spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.
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Persona
Deities in Persona
- Pandora: Born from the nihilistic urges of Maki Sonomura, Pandora attempts to use the DEVA System to destroy all existence. She resides within the Avidya World, only accessed with the compacts given to the protagonist by the fragments of Maki's personality. During her boss fight, she manifests as a horrific lump of flesh with Maki's face growing out of it on a tendril, but this is only a cocoon for her true form: a giant duplicate of Maki with butterfly wings and antennae. After her defeat, she realizes the truth of the bonds between Maki and the others and re-merges with Maki, making her essentially a prototype of the Shadow Selves of later installments.
- Hypnos: The Persona of Kumi Hirose. Kumi, a stressed-out student who committed suicide, was "saved" by the Night Queen (we'll get to her later) and granted Hypnos to put her fellow students to sleep forever within Hypnos Tower and supposedly save them from the stress she endured. He appears as a nude young man with blue hair and poppy stock wrapped around his body (which thankfully covers his privates). Hypnos, as with the next two entries on this list, is eligible because, unlike other Personae, he fights independently of his user. Interestingly, he appears as a conventional Persona in Persona 3, wielded by Takaya Sakaki, but no reference is made to this game, as with the next two.
- Nemesis: The Persona of Michiko Matsudaira. Michiko, a spiteful bully in life, was granted Nemesis to torture those she looks down upon endlessly within Nemesis Tower. She appears as a blonde woman wearing an ancient Greek robe and wielding a shield and bloody spear. She also appears in Persona 3 as the Persona of Ken Amada.
- Thanatos: The Persona of Yuriko Yamamoto. Yuriko, a popular student with deeply-hidden neuroses, was granted Thanatos to gain eternal life by killing those who entered Thanatos Tower. He appears as a hunched over man in a green cloak controlling a contingent of tentacles. He also appears in Persona 3 as the ultimate Persona of the Death Arcana.
- The Night Queen: Her ultimate goal is to plunge the world into an eternal night, and the Snow Queen Curse, spread through the mask used in St. Hermelin's play, was a means to bring her back into the world to accomplish that end. After being forced out of the body of Saeko Takami, she merges with two masked underlings (Maki and Kandori, though they go unnamed), becoming Queen Asura and battling the heroes. She appears as three fused bodies, with each head wearing a different-colored mask. For more information on her other appearance, see the section on Nyx below, or go to the Persona: Recurring page.
Persona 2
Deities in Persona 2
- Philemon: Born of humanity's capacity for good and order, Philemon is the being who created the Velvet Room, and who bestows the power of Persona on humans. In Persona 2, he engages in a competition with Nyarlathotep (see below) to see whether humanity lies in Philemon's domain or Nyarlathotep's. He appears as a man with black/brown hair in a ponytail, and his outfit changes from appearance to appearance: in Persona 1, he wears a white blazer, black dress shirt and tie, white pants, black dress shoes, and a full-face, pupil-concealing mask with a violet butterfly design on the right-hand side, while in Persona 2, he wears a black turtleneck and belted pants, and a Phantom of the Opera-esque mask with an orange butterfly design on the left-hand side and visible pupils. He has not made any in-person appearances since the first two games, but his presence is felt in the form of a blue butterfly; it grants the power of the Wild Card to Aigis in Persona 3 FES, serves as a save point in Persona 4, and appears to Joker to carry Lavenza's message to him in Persona 5, though that one may have been Lavenza herself.
- Nyarlathotep: Born of humanity's capacity for evil and chaos, Nyarlathotep is the sworn archrival of Philemon, and seeks the destruction of the human race. He has no consistent form: his first appearance, as Kandori's Persona in Persona 1, gave him a conventionally demonic form similar to his Shin Megami Tensei appearance, and Persona 2 saw him appearing in multiple human guises; those of Akinari Kashihara, Masataka Amano, Adolf Hitler, the Time Count, and Tatsuya Suou. His true forms, however, are far more monstrous: Jun Kurosu's Persona, Joker-Nyarlathotep, is a mutated black-and-white humanoid with wings on his legs, clawed fingers, stakes driven through his heart, and blue eyes scattered across his body; the Great Father is a twisted amalgamation of the party members' fathers fused with a Cthulhumanoid central body; Kandori's Nyarlathotep Persona in Eternal Punishment is a solid black Joker-Nyarlathotep lookalike wearing pieces of a Buddhist statue like armor; the Moon Howler is a three-legged humanoid seemingly composed entirely of tentacles; and the Crawling Chaos is a solid black humanoid with tentacles and screaming face masks scattered across its body. Unlike his enemy, Nyarlathotep has not made any appearances after the first two games, though his symbol of a black butterfly cameos in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax as a part of one of Shadow Aigis' intros.
- Persephone: Created by the grief of Musubu Torikiri, a student at St. Hermelin High School whose sister Akari committed suicide, Persephone is a twisted version of Akari's spirit who appears to the teacher Naozumi Kariyazaki via a website called "Ambrosia". She uses a Parasite Persona in the psyche of Kariyazaki to transform him and his students into "ideal" versions of themselves. After the Parasite Persona is defeated, Persephone herself emerges and attacks, but passes on peacefully when defeated. She appears as a nude red-headed woman split down the middle: the right-hand side has solid white skin with black designs and blue eyes, and the left-hand side has solid black skin with white designs and red eyes, with the two sides being held together by strands of flesh.
- Kushiel: The Persona of Tamaizu Nirazawa, gone rogue due to his user's overactive imagination and determined to cleanse the world of the humans that he believes have forsaken God. He takes advantage of the power of rumors to create a COMP, summoning demons to steal the Personas of the students of Karukozaka High School. With the collective unconscious unoccupied by the Personas, he uses it to target the "quantum plasma beams" that Nirazawa believes exist. He is thwarted by Haruo Weyland, who sings a song about realizing the truth that allows the students to take back their Personas, and is defeated by the heroes. He appears as a solid white Winged Humanoid with no features wearing an armlet on his left arm.
- The Guardians of the Trapezohedrons: The demons and deities appointed by Nyarlathotep to guard the Trapezohedrons that contained the fragments of Shiori Miyashiro's heart. Consisting of Umr At Tawil
, Vairocana, Sakya, Azazel, Izanami, Angra Mainyu, Nodens, Old One, Dagon, Cthulhu, and Nyarlathotep himself. Each guard a different fragment of the heart: Umr At Tawil guards the Trapezohedron of Knowledge, Vairocana the Trapezohedron of Reason, Sakya the Trapezohedron of Perseverance, Azazel the Trapezohedron of Impulse, Izanami the Trapezohedron of Emotion, Angra Mainyu the Trapezohedron of Ethics, Nodens the Trapezohedron of Memory, Old One the Trapezohedron of Wisdom, Dagon the Trapezohedron of Perception, Cthulhu the Trapezohedron of Will, and Nyarlathotep the Trapezohedron containing Shiori's Shadow Self, which he attempts to use to kill Tatsuya Suou. Izanami would later make an appearance in Persona 4 — see below for more information on that, or check her character page.
Persona 3
Deities in Persona 3
- Nyx: A drifting celestial body the size of the Moon, Nyx collided with Earth when the planet was developing its earliest forms of life. Nyx's "psyche" remained among life on Earth while its "body" became the Moon. Life on Earth gradually evolved to contain Nyx's psychic energies within their psyches as Shadows, which resulted in the formation of collective unconsciousness — within which Nyx's psyche sank into its darkest depths to slumber. In the '90s, Shadow experiments done by the Kirijo Group were on the way to gathering enough Shadows to merge into Death, a special Shadow which can awaken Nyx's psyche, but the actions of Eiichiro Takeba split it into 13 Arcana Shadows. 10 years later, S.E.E.S. destroying 12 of the Arcana Shadows allows Pharos the 13th piece to regain his true nature, becoming Ryoji Mochizuki due to the Protagonist's influence. After Nyx's psyche awakens from Death's presence, it moves to incarnate within Death and transform it into Nyx Avatar. It almost succeeds to bring about the Fall, but is foiled by the protagonist becoming the Great Seal. Nyx Avatar appears as a massive humanoid with black wings and a face resembling a mask, with solid black eyes and a mouth that's just a black shape; it wears a steel dress-like article, adorns a crown, and wields a massive sword.
- Erebus: The true reason for Nyx's attempt to bring the Fall, Erebus is the manifestation of all mankind's worst negative emotions: grief, sadness, depression... all the things they'd rather die than live with. It trying to call Nyx down is what compels Nyx's psyche to bring about the Fall, and what the Great Seal keeps at bay. After Aigis gains the power of the Wild Card, it changes tactics from trying to break the Seal itself to using Aigis as a weapon to break it, but is fortunately defeated by S.E.E.S. before it can accomplish this. However, so long as some part of humanity longs for death as a mercy, it will never truly be defeated. It appears as a massive quadrupedal being with skull-like faces at both ends; one has swept-back horns, while the other has swept-forward horns.
Persona 4
Deities in Persona 4
- Izanami: Bearing the true name of Izanami-no-Mikoto, she becomes intrigued by the idea of human desires. She decides to set up shop in Inaba in the guise of a gas station attendant and run an experiment to find out what they truly desired: she would create the world inside the TV and awaken the power of Persona within three subjects, representing hope, despair, and emptiness; whichever had the greatest effect on the populace would be chosen as the true desire that she would grant. The subjects chosen were the protagonist, Taro Namatame, and Tohru Adachi respectively, and since Adachi's murders generate the greatest stir, she resolves to use the fog to turn the entire world into a world of Shadows, where everyone lives in blissful ignorance. However, she is stopped by the Investigation Team before her plans can come to fruition. Her human guise is that of a young androgynous person with silver hair and red eyes wearing a robe, or alternately, a gas station uniform. Her godly form is a massive humanoid figure wearing a straightjacket and an ultra-ostentatious robe. Once the protagonist shines the Orb of Sight on her, however, her appearance degrades sharply: the robe becomes tattered and stained, her upper body becomes emaciated and corpse-like, and her lower body becomes what can only be described as a cross between a charred human corpse and a giant flea. To oversee the experiment, she split three beings off from herself:
- Kunino-Sagiri: It was meant to grant the desire of despair, and was assigned to Namatame. It makes itself apparent at the final room of the Heaven dungeon, manifesting after Namatame is possessed by every Shadow in the dungeon and attacking the party in a desperate attempt to "save" Nanako. It appears as an emaciated human figure with a disproportionately large head, an antenna on the top of that head, and a small pair of wings on its back, wearing an oversized white T-shirt with love and peace symbols on it. A massive ring is clamped to its forehead, which also has peace symbols attached to it.
- Ameno-Sagiri: It was meant to grant the desire of emptiness, and was assigned to Adachi. After the latter is defeated in the Magatsu Inaba dungeon, it takes over and battles the Investigation Team itself, but is defeated. It appears as a massive sphere with a yellow eye, nozzles all over it, and rainbow lines criss-crossing its surface.
- Kusumi-no-Okami: It was meant to grant the desire of hope, and was assigned to the protagonist. However, this fragment was weaker than its fellows, and lost its memories of its purpose. It took on a new identity: Marie, Margaret's fellow Velvet Attendant. Unfortunately for her, Marie's purpose was to absorb the fog created by Ameno-Sagiri, and after its defeat, she does just that... but it begins to slowly kill her. To avoid releasing the fog onto Inaba, she goes into the Hollow Forest to die alone, but is rescued from herself by the Investigation Team, and when Izanami is defeated, she absorbs every other part of herself and becomes Izanami-no-Mikoto. Marie's appearance as Kusumi-no-Okami is her normal self, but wearing a white and red robe with the hood up and with her left eye glowing a bright blueish-green. In her transformed state, she becomes an armored figure with glowing red light coming out of the eye sockets and a long red cape, as well as a magatama amulet hovering over her head with ropes attached to it.
Persona 4: Arena
- Hi-No-Kagutsuchi: A deity born from the dissatisfaction of people as well as a personification of Death, he is known as a "Malevolent Entity" that impersonates as Teddie and has a wide array of powers such as creating shadow doppelgangers of other characters, shapeshifting, mind control and telepathy, and he seeks to destroy the world with Sho Minazuki until he is the only one who remains. In his usual form, he appears as a Teddie-like shadow called "General Teddie" and the game's announcer and in his true form, he appears as a large, fiery monster resembling a serpent.
Persona 5
Deities in Persona 5
- Yaldabaoth: Hailing himself as "the God of Control", he grows frustrated with what he perceives to be the indolence of humanity and takes it upon himself to sort things out, one way or another. To this end, he replaces and disguises himself as Igor, splits the current Velvet Attendant, Lavenza, into two beings, and begins his trial of humanity: he chooses two candidates to grant the power of Persona to, one representing freedom and one representing remaking the world, and whichever gained the greatest support from the people would be the fate of humanity. Those two candidates were Joker and Goro Akechi respectively, and despite Joker's victory over Akechi, the distorted heart of the populace leads the Phantom Thieves to be erased from the world. However, this was Yaldabaoth's plan from the beginning; the distortion was his doing, and his intention was always to betray them both and subjugate humanity under his rule, reducing them to cattle who blindly accept all they're handed. Thankfully, when he tries to enact this, he is foiled by the rebellious will of Joker, Caroline and Justine becoming Lavenza once more, and the desires of the people for the freedom the Phantom Thieves bring. In his true form, he appears as a skyscraper-sized white and gold robotic being with a metallic halo and wings. His legs have a number of hexagonal containers attached to them, from which he draws his weapons with a number of extra arms.
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Deities in Persona Q and Q2
- Chronos: A Psychopomp that resides in the underworld retrieving souls. He is merciless and emotionless, although an encounter with a girl called "Niko" with a particularly tragic backstory softened him up, allowing him to gain humanity. He created a fake Yasogami High School to soothe the girl's pain and separated his true form into the school's Clock Tower, while wiping out both of their memories and naming the girl "Rei" because "Phillei" is too complicated. His human form named himself "Zen" and ordered powerful Shadows to defend items that can potentially recover Rei's memories so he could take the time to study Rei and prevent her from suffering. He cannot take the items without external help, so when the time came, the Clockwork God that acts as Chronos' true form drawn in Persona users from different timelines to help Zen get those items. After they were all obtained, Chronos tries to retrieve Rei and forcefully deports her only to be stopped by the Persona users and Zen, allowing Zen to peacefully vanish to the Sea of Souls alongside Rei. In his true form, he appears as a humanoid robot with Zen's face laced with clockwork, and sets a 5 turn counter for everyone to die unless they delay the counter or kill him quick.
- Enlil: The master of the theater district who curates a complex of theaters that draw in the souls of people in deep depression or self-denial and soothe them by having them watch movies...aside that the movies are all just negative memories of people stored in an Akashic Record. One of the souls inside one of the theaters is a girl known as "Hikari," who was so torn by her past traumas to the point that she gave up her sense of self and lost her memories, instead escaping from pain by watching the movies. In a theater, she has no powers and one of her names as a curator is "Nagi." Later on a being known as "Doe" trapped both women in Hikari's theater and overwritten the collective negativity with Hikari's consciousness to draw Persona users from other regions of the collective unconscious to save Hikari, leaving Nagi powerless and the Persona users trapped. Once all of the locks were done for, she drops off her guise and reveals her true identity and plan, forcing the party to stop her due to the serious consequences that her salvation plan will bring. Once she goes near defeat, she erases the entire party from existence. Thankfully, she was defeated when Hikari intervened and bought back all of the protagonists to do a final unison attack on her. In human form, she appears as a classy theater curator in white with long red hair and a white lily decor on top, while in her true form, she appears as a masculine eagle holding a large sword and a staff, with a cape merged onto her head, two horns and a pair of floating propellers.
