| rpgfanatic.net On today's episode of RPG(ology) we'll talk about the meaning behind a few of the spells in Megaten games! This includes the Persona games! Zio is the name for the family of lightning spells in the Shin Megami Tensei series. Zio is actually a little known alternate name for Tyr (tear), a god of air and war in Norse mythology. Zio was a more common name for the god among the Germanic tribe the Teutons, who were kind of like cousins to the Gauls and shared a lot of religious ideas between one another in the Greek and Roman eras. Actually, Tyr was also the source material for Jupiter, the roman God of Thunder and the Greek God, Zeus; these latter gods being a combination of the ideas surrounding Tyr, Odin and Thor. And for those curious my source is page 196 of Teutonic mythology, Volume 1 by Jacob Grimm-- yes, that Jacob Grimm. Agi, the family of fire spells, are most likely based on Agni, the Hindu god of fire and accepter of sacrifices. Zan spells tend to differ on the game, sometimes they are a family of wind spells, and other times they are blast or almighty spells. I'm unsure what Zan is supposed to reference, but the Kanji used in the original game is ザン, which translates as "than" into English. I'm unsure what the significance of this is. Anyway, Garu is a class of wind spells in some of the games. The name most likely comes from the Hindu deity Garuda, a mythical bird deity who is often portrayed as the mount of Vishnu. Garuda is often used as a ... |
