PSIII: Neopalm knew about it

[Mono]

More confusing theories about the events in PSIII. With spoilers, of course.

In Sean's ending, AlisaIII gets in contact with Neopalm, the only surviving worldship besides AlisaIII that had escaped the destruction of Palma. We are told that the other 398 worldships were destroyed one by one, presumably by Dark Force (in my mind, it is more likely that some of them would have been destroyed by the planet's explosion, but it doesn´t matter here). One may think that Neopalm was just too lucky to have escaped DF's attack, and when it was sealed by Orakio and Laya, they were safe for a while.

But when Neopalm makes contact, they say they were atracted by an explosion (of one of the moons), and "we guessed that Dark Force had arisen again and came over to lend any help you needed."

How the hell did they know about Dark Force? They continue:

"Since you're still here, we assume you've won."

There are a few possibilities:

1- They were aware of the existence of Dark Force (maybe they had some Espers aboard, who knows), and, by deduction, understood that it was it that was making the other worldships disappear. They weren´t attacked because Orakio and Laya stopped DF and sealed it in AlisaIII before it got to Neopalm.
2- They got warned by the other worldships as they were attacked and fled away from the original fleet to save themselves.
3- They were attacked by Dark Force and repelled its attack, forcing it to flee and turn to an easier target instead.

There are others, but I can´t elaborate them right now. I would like to hear what you lot think about it and bring more ideas.

But if 1 or 2 were true, then their assumption that DF was making things blow in AlisaIII would never bring them close to that ship (also, in 2, they wouldn´t have know so much about DF, like the millenium period it waits to strike again). They would just go as far as possible to save their lives. Also, in another 3rd generation story, they voluntarily get close to AlisaIII as well (and get their butts blown for good). Why would someone who is afraid of Dark Force enough to leave the party come back to help out at the first sight of it?

I favour 3, because it fits with the knowledge they did show about Dark Force, about its destructive potential, its "life cycle". "Since you're still here, we assume you've won", and not "we assume that it just laid down to rest for a bit", or "it disappeared somehow... what, you have won? Incredible!" presumes that Neopalm also survived because they would have won an actual battle and forced DF to retreat - they "have won". The way they came to "lend any help", and the way they were willingly joining forces with AlisaIII to "get rid of it for good next time", show that they knew how to do it with what they had in hands (which Orakio, and now Sean, have learned too well themselves).

If 3 is true, it raises questions: How did Neopalm win? Who were the heroes? How did DF escaped, and how much strenght did it lose? Why didn´t they chase DF wherever it went? Unfortunately, PSII and IV show that none of the active heroes in the time when the worldships fled from Palma would've had any relation with it (Rolf and his friends stayed in Algol, and when they fought the earthmen, the ships were probably quite far away, and Lutz and Tyler stayed in Dezoris).

Discuss :^P

[thriwren]

My theory(ies) is that since the destruction of Parma resulted in multiple DF attacking the world ships. I took into effect that maybe that the Neopalm had an event(s) that the AlisaIII had. And Neoplam might have been more aware of other ship(s) than the story we are given (The only ones that I can recall talking about Algo and the such are the Elders of Skyhaven)

[skymandr]

I think thriwren's theory of multiple Dark Force-lets is basically sound. Besides, from what we know of the time line there aren't really enough millenia for a visit by a single DF to Neopalm before going to Alisa 3, unless ve visits both in one cycle (or there are some relativistic effects that we have hitherto ignored).

If DF visits both ships at the time of the Orakio/Laya war it would, I guess, explain how the war ended - the sudden appearance of a common enemy united the two leaders. I don't like this, however, since I always assumed that the larger influence of DF was behind the war in the first place.

ADDENDUM: Should we label thriwren's Multi-DF hypothesis 4 for future convenience?

[thriwren]

Mine is based from that IV introduced that there was three DF, so that it might seem plausible that there are multiple (I dont want to say there was hundreds of DF, but more than one, terrorizing the world ships and I guessing that DF can jump ship my its own means or take a shuttle.)

[Zucca]

I Agree with "multiple Dark Forces" idea because when Palm was destroyed the seal weakened.

[Sange Mahlay]

The Neopalm was aware because it was the only ship that had not been touched by Dark Force yet. We know that at least some people on the ships were aware of Dark Force (The people of New Mota tell us that was the reason for the project.) As I recall, Dark Force went about destroying each ship one by one. It got to Alisa III first, and the Devastation War occurred. The pilot of the Neo Palm seems to be more adept technologically, so its' probable that knowledge of Dark Force and pre Great Collapse society in general is still abundant.