Real World Influences

Collaboration
August 21, 2004

The creators of the Chrono series were initially faced with the task of writing a unique history for their world; as ours is a product of a logical evolution of human ideas and reasoning, theirs was invariably so as well; many similarities exist between the two. Elements of culture were borrowed and fitted for the games, some inadvertently, others carefully selected for extra meaning. We may thus delve into them to locate each reference to our own world, and in some cases, discover names that hold more value for their objects. This study is divided into the following sections:

Historical Parallels

Section initiated by ZeaLitY

The Chrono series shares many parallels with our own history. 65000000 B.C. and onward to the age of Zeal is an amalgation of the Pleistocene Epoch and the Mesozoic Era; within the former, humans began to reach a fully evolved state, and the latter witnessed the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, made extinct in this case by Lavos. 65000000 B.C. was probably chosen as this is the date given by Luis Alvarez, a famous researcher, as the rough estimate of the Cretaceous extinction, when a large meteorite is theorized to have landed at the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and caused the extinction of numerous animals. In the Chrono series, this exctinction comes in the form of a millions of years long Ice Age. Though there have been several Ice Ages on Earth, none can so closely correspond with that of the Chrono series.

While there is no wondrous catalyst for human evolution on our planet such as the Frozen Flame, the history of the Chrono series nonetheless coincides with our own theoretical evolution by suggesting a cranial expansion; this can be seen in Chronopolis.

12,000 B.C. yields further parallels. Zeal can be easily considered symbolic of Atlantis, the supposed island off the coast of Europe that held an advanced society and was famed to have been chronicled by Plato, whose book was supposedly destroyed in the library of Alexandria. Plato's surviving mentions date the fall of this civilization at roughly 9,000 years before his time, playing it around 9300 B.C. Like Zeal, it was an idyllic place, where fruit is ripe year round, as recorded by the ancient Diodorus. Additionally, the Greek historian Theopompus recounted a conversation with King Midas and one of his advisors as describing this far land as full of rich cities of gold and silver. The most linking aspect, however, is that Atlantis, in nearly all its incarnations, meets a similar fate as Zeal -- it is torn asunder by a force of nature, and sinks beneath the surface of the sea. The Roman historian Marcellus cites from Druids and Gauls that the survivors of Atlantis settled in Western Europe, similar to the integration of Zealian survivors with the laborous, unwashed Earthbound. Recent theorists and authors have proposed that Atlantis was a highly-evolved, advanced society. One of the more controversial authors, Edgar Cayce, also reports strange crafts powered by some form of energy crystal; this smacks of the Sun Stone and the Blackbird.

On a more simpler note, Zeal yields the three Gurus; their religious inclinations will be discussed below in the appropriate section. Historically, they may have significance closer to Chrono Trigger's "home."

Chrono'99: About the 3 gurus giving Chrono's party 3 gifts like the Mages, I always though these 3 gifts were more in relation with the Japanese mythology:

The japanese Emperor received 3 gifts from the gods:

• a sword taken from a devil's body (Masamune)
• a magical jewel (Time Egg?)
• a mirror with 8 faces (ok there is only 7 time periods in CT but...)

1stoftheLast also offers a bit of commentary on the titling of the Gurus:

1stoftheLast: You see, the Gure of Life makes weapons, the Guru of Time goes to a place where time either doesn't exist or has no meaning, and the Guru of Reason goes crazy. Oh, the Irony.

Lastly, Zeal's cities have Persian sounding names; upon closer inspection, Zeal can mirror the first Persian Empire, which was swift and mighty in its rise and fell due to decay and decadence. Its achievements were legendary, as the city of Persepolis is still under review as to how it was constructed -- such is the quality of its architecture.

Beyond the age of the new world lie similarities closer to home; the period of 600 A.D. yields visions of knights, squires, magnificent castles, crusades, and battles with magic-wielding, mythical (to Earth) monsters. Guardia is lifted straight out of Western European history and the Middle Ages; a cathedral exists, presumably with monastic and holy orders as seen in the various Nuns of the world, and knights preserve the law and follow a code of chivalry best exemplified by Cyrus and Frog. Sealing the comparison is the presence of the Knights of the Squaretable in the Chrono series, an order present in English legend -- originally, the Knights of the Roundtable, presided over by the legendary King Arthur. Workers seem to till the land, and the world contains cafes and inns where much merrymaking occurs.

The Muslim element first appears in this era as well, as Magus bears striking resemblances to the prophet Muhammed who founded the religion. Muhammed was born in Mecca, which, unsurprisingly, bears a relation to Zeal, the birthplace of Magus: Muslim pilgrims revere the Black Stone, a meteorite which fell in the time of Adam; this is reminiscent of Zeal's obsession with Lavos, who fell from the sky in early human history and whose fragment, the Frozen Flame, has been sought after through the ages and was rumored in Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross to have been used in Zeal, perhaps in the Mammon Machine. Muhammed was also recorded to have been born in 570 A.D.; this coincides with Magus's given age in Radical Dreamers as 'in his thirties,' which means Magus was transported away from Zeal around that date in the Chrono series. When Muslims mention Muhammed, they usually follow his name with the phrase "Peace be upon him;" Magus is also honored in several vocal ways -- in the Cathedral, he is quoted by the Mystics as "Our Hero;" in Medina, he is "the almighty," and to his followers at Medina Square, his name is preceded with the title Sir.

Magus's introduction to the Mystics, in all probability, served as the primary cause of their rise to power; his castle later became the site of Medina, the city of the Mystics. Like Magus, Muhammed, though being born into the richest clan of Mecca (i.e. the royal family of Zeal), he was repeatedly persecuted for his religion, and suffered excessively -- Magus too endured "the darkness" to realize his life's goal. Muhammed eventually took his followers to Medina, where he became leader of the city, and was known as the Prophet -- the title also given to Magus as he revists Zeal in the Keystone Timelines, and also his status over the Mystics.

Much like in our own Middle Ages, the forces of Christendom, represented by Guardia, and the Muslim civilization of the Mystics clashed, though the offensive roles may have been somewhat reversed. The Muslims took the Holy Land of Palestine in a time when Western Europeans had little care for such a far off region, especially since the Muslims permitted pilgrimage. However, attitudes changed once stories circulated of violence towards Christians and the destruction of a shrine (though it was later rebuilt). Unlike our own history, in which Christendom launched the bulk of offense against the Muslims, the Mystics of the Chrono series lead an effort to wholly conquer the nation of Guardia, which spends most of its efforts on defense. However, similar to the crusades of Christendom, the Mystic assault on Guardia stopped short and failed to permanently achieve its objective.

Lastly, Magus shares a simple relation with Genghis Khan, who had gotten as far as Europe when he died and the Mongols were suddenly stunted in their advance (Magus perished, ending the Mystic war).

Beyond the Middle Ages, 1000 A.D. offers a combination of 18th century settings with later technology and even science that is still being developed (e.g. Lucca's teleportation device). For example, Guardia now has a trial system, and engineers are starting to become common (Lucca and the Dragon Tank).

The eras beyond, 1999 A.D. and 2300 A.D. offer common futuristic visions: domed cities, teleporation technology, mastery of time, space, and quantum mechanics, and the progression of religion towards a more secularly humanistic phase -- faith in science, and man's powers to reason. Nanotechnology may also be a feature of the future. Additionally, Nostradamus predicted the world would end in 1999 A.D.; the Chrono series parallels this via the apocalypse.

Unifying the history of the Chrono series is a familiar calendar system of A.D. and B.C., though this does not necessarily mean a Christ existed in the Chrono series (see the Religion section below for an extensive debate on this subject).

The Chrono series also parallels mythology, as presented by Chrono'99.

Chrono Theogenia Chrono'99

Chrono Plot, by Chrono'99

a) Gaia, goddess of the Earth, was oppressed by Uranus, god of Space.
b) The Entity (Planet) was oppressed by Lavos.
a) Gaia sends her son Cronos to kill Uranus.
b) The Entity sends Crono to kill Lavos.
a) Cronos castrates Uranus.
b) Crono sends Lavos to the Darkness Beyond Time.

a) Cronos devours each of his children each time one of them is born.
b) Crono's party (see Lucca's letter in CC) feels that they 'killed' the people of the former future, even before they were born, by creating the new time-line.
a) Zeus, one of his son, kills Cronos.
b) ??? (maybe FATE somehow kills Crono)
a) Gaia sends the Giants (who are actually giant reptiles) to defeat Zeus.
b) The Entity sends the Dragonians to defeat FATE.
a) Their chief Typhon is sealed in the Tartarus.
b) The Dragon God is sealed in the Darkness Beyond Time.

a) Prometheus steals the Fire from Zeus to give it to the Humans.
b) Prometheus requisitions the Frozen Flame from FATE to 'give' it to Serge.
a) The Humans gain some powers against Zeus.
b) Serge defeats FATE.
a) (a late Orphic sect belief) The Humans can manage to fuse with the Universe by meditating.
b) Serge defeated the Devourer of Time and merged back the dimensions.

SilverEagle: if you think of the militaristic Porre which was created by the change in time as crono's "son" and if porre conquered guardia then crono may have died in the process.

Chrono'99 makes a convincing argument in comparing the Chrono series to classic mythology; it can be compared to Xathael's effort to view the Chrono series as an allegory for Christianity.