The Statues/Pictures in the Sanctuary

[DevNall]

In Lunar: Eternal Blue's churches, there are four statues, one picture and one symbol that appears on the walls.



I'm curious, has there been any speculation as to who the four figures are, or who the lady on the wall picture is, or what the top-center symbol is?


(The obvious guess might be the current four heroes for the four statues, although if so, somebody must have done a very flattering rendition of Morgan. The skin tone on the picture looks too dark for Althena, so I suppose that could be a palette limitation.)

[Alunissage]

I was wondering that too while playing EB on the Megadrive Mini 2. It's been a while since we've done any detective work...

[ShugoHanasaki]

I think they're meant to advertise the 4 guardians of Althena (fake althena). In this case of LUNAR 2... I imagine they're statues of humans because of the 'magic' being gone from the world mostly and humanity taking over as Althena intended, however! Another conclusion could be that they're representing the 4 dragons, but the 4 dragons are magical and could have been people beforehand.

[Alunissage]

The Sanctuary is basically laid out like Pentagulia, isn't it? With the statues being where the towers are. I don't think the statues are meant to represent specific people, though, since there are only two designs rather than all four being different. No idea what that symbol is in the middle back either. I'll have to see if I see it anywhere else.

I also wonder about the staffs the central Althena statue is holding. One is obviously the moon, but the other is like the one the False Althena carries. I don't remember any other depictions of Althena holding a staff like that. Of course, in TSS there's only one depiction of her at all, the one in my avatar.

As a side note, it's interesting that the symbol of Lunar in the statues is still of a crescent moon, even though Lunar could not have been seen as a crescent since before the migration.

[DevNall]

The Sanctuary is basically laid out like Pentagulia, isn't it? With the statues being where the towers are. I don't think the statues are meant to represent specific people, though, since there are only two designs rather than all four being different.

Perhaps? That might have simply been a memory or pixel size limitation.

I also wonder about the staffs the central Althena statue is holding. One is obviously the moon, but the other is like the one the False Althena carries. I don't remember any other depictions of Althena holding a staff like that. Of course, in TSS there's only one depiction of her at all, the one in my avatar.

There is concept art of this in one of the art books:

[Alunissage]

Right, but I think that's specifically EB concept art, for the statue in the sanctuary.

[Temzin]

Absolutely wild side note on the statue design that I’d never noticed after nearly two decades: EB (and SSS) world/visual designer Satou’s comment notes the cloth-covered disc behind Althena, also part of the engraving; no one has ever seen underneath, but it’s said to be the figure of Zophar! So it’s a reminder that all the Athena imagery in EB is actually the cult’s, whereas only Alun’s image from TSS is the real Althena heraldry. At least in Satou’s mind, of course—not that it’s an official part of the story, but he had such a sophisticated aesthetic. Among EB remix’s many crimes were the terrible redesigns of Zophar and some of his other iconic bosses, which I just cannot imagine were his doing.

[Kizyr]

Absolutely wild side note on the statue design that I’d never noticed after nearly two decades: EB (and SSS) world/visual designer Satou’s comment notes the cloth-covered disc behind Althena, also part of the engraving; no one has ever seen underneath, but it’s said to be the figure of Zophar!

Oh neat! I suppose that's a good way to get the "something seems off..." vibe for the Althena imagery in EB, for anyone who's familiar with how Althena was always depicted in TSS. Something definitely seemed off but I didn't realize they accomplished this by incorporating Zophar's form.