Good day travelers. It has been a while since my last appearance, has it not? Well, due to Administrator Shurelia having some technical difficulties with her corner, and as I have heard there was a great interest in exploring the world of SaGa Frontier during my absence, I now return with the Fact Center to keep the hunger of your curiosities satisfied, with detailed information on Mystic culture that some of you desperately wanted to know.
From the point of view of the common man, the Mystics are quite as mysterious as their name implies. In reality, however, the race functions under a very simple and straightforward value system, their Code of Mystic, which compares everyone and everything against 3 sets of values. The values are "the beauty that charms all others", "the fear that terrorizes all others", and "the pride that bows down to no other". The more a Mystic excels at those three values, the higher the status and power the Mystic has within their society, and if they were to act against these values, the Mystic would be fated to perish. These values, you see, also determine the Mystic's life span, especially the value of Beauty. To best envision those values, you may recall the three spirits that Orlouge evoked in battle. They are the three values actually embodied in a physical form.
The race of Mystics are divided based on these values into three ranks in a vertical hierarchy, within which those of lower ranks are bound to obey the command of the higher. Most Mystics belong to the lowest rank, and they are mostly disregarded by the higher ranking Mystics, as middle and upper ranking Mystics simply do not believe in love, friendship, kindness, or any type of bonds between people at all. Personal interests and their individual achievements in accordance with the three values are their sole concerns. Thus, lower Mystics who fell behind on the practice of the three values are simply seen as beings that don't warrant the attention of the higher ranking Mystics. It is impossible for lower Mystics to ascend in ranks either, as the Mystics are valued by their natural abilities; they simply do not believe in hard work and any acquired power would bear no meaning to them, and this is assuming that the concept of promotion actually exists at all among the higher ranked Mystics. Ironically, it is also the lower Mystics who were found to posses certain extraordinary powers that the higher ranking ones can not possess. For example, Furdo to a lesser degree, or TimeLord, whose power surpasses many upper Mystics. But how, and why? We do not know. This may be the outcome of middle and upper ranked Mystics limiting their own possibilities by being overly devoted to their strict value systems to the exclusion of all else.
Above the common ranks of the Mystics exists an even higher power, the seats of the Mystic Lords. The rank of Mystic Lord(also known as "those who are chosen by the generation"), being the pinnacle of Mystic society, is a position which is extremely difficulty to obtain. The title is only rewarded to Mystics who have survived at least thousand years and have remained in the highest rank during this entire time. They own huge territories and are allowed to establish their own clan, and are also bound to the duty of hunting down Rogue Mystics. In recent times, only two Mystic Lords exist, Orlouge and Virgil. However, Princess Rei and Dark Knight Vezon are also known to have power equivalent to that of a Mystic Lord despite not having the actual title.
As if they were a reflection, just as there are Mystic Lords who exceed the common mystic ranks, there are Rogue Mystics who have fallen below. Rogue Mystics(also known as "those who can't be seen apart") are Mystics whose ranks fell so low that they aren't even be recognized as Mystics anymore. In Mystic terms, the rogues lack personality, spirit, guts, and are merely a foolish mass. In other words, they are like humans. There are periods known as the Time of Thirst, where hunts for Rogue Mystics are conducted in a large scale, which most commonly occur when the Rogue Mystics have multiplied in great number or the rank of the Mystics are falling on a worldly scale(in reality, it would be a time that high rank Mystic are abundant, thus raising the scale of evaluation). In some extreme cases, however, Mystic Lords would conduct the hunt just to fulfill their ego.
The most well known story of the tragic fate of Rogue Mystics would be the tale of the Water Mystics. There was once a Water Mystic who dreamed of becoming human, not knowing a Mystic can never become a human no matter how much they were to lower their rank. She decided to forsake her Mystic Foot/Boots (as she is a Water Mystic, this is her tail) to obtain a form like a human's, which also dropped her rank to the lowest level possible. This act enraged all the Mystic Lords of that time, and the entire clan of Water Mystics were purged as a result of her actions. Those who now dwells in the sea of Owmi were the few survivors of the event.
However, the times are changing around the Mystics, whether they like it or not. Despite the fact that the ranks of Mystics are universally high in our age, and some are fearing this would lead to another Time of Thirst as the scale of ranking might be facing another raise, conducting Rogue Mystic Hunts is not so easy now. There are many Mystics that are assimilating themselves further into human culture and who have gained substantial power in the human world, such as Cindy Campbell or Yaruto, and the Mystic Lords are bound to think twice if they consider conducting a hunt. New waves of ideology are also emerging within the Mystic Community itself. For example, we now have powerful Mystics like Zozma and Rei who simply disregard the Code of Mystic, and the secretly wishing opportunist that is Rastaban. Combine these with the birth of the Half-Mystic and the fall of Orlouge, and it is inevitable that the Mystics eventually will be broken out of their self-enclosed system. When they do, will they be able to come to terms with themselves? This will certainly be an interesting question we shall have to examine the answer to in the future as it unfolds.
