My love for Mao has been rekindled 8D And so the whole Fon Master Guardian Mao thing has also been resurrected. I remember I wrote the beginning of that ToAxToR crossover where Mao is Ion's guard, (Eugene, Oracle Knight, finds him and begins training him), but I must have deleted it :c

Mao's color scheme will remain about the same--blue-green with some red and purple. His mantle will be white, with turquoise borders, or turquoise with white borders (kind of like Arietta's except hers was pink and white).

As of now, Mao's probably going to be Ion's only male guard (Anise + Dist gaiden pretty much confirmed that the whole force was composed of women ... maybe Evenos was a ladies' man 8D). He also turns out to be one of Ion's best guards, which makes him the prime candidate for the position of Fon Master Guardian Commander (which was vacant during ToA so say the books in Daath's library).

I think Mao would get along with Anise, maybe so-so with Arietta (I'm thinking Mao was found after our Ion took over the Order of Lorelei). Well, there's no real reason that Mao can't be good friends with Arietta, which would tear him between her and Anise over the course of the story. Not in a romantic way, of course~ Because it's all ION ION ION. Since Arietta's so sad all the time, perhaps Mao could be the go-to person to cheer her up.

Oh man, Mao and Anise would make such a destructive force

In the original draft of the crossover, Callegia was included, but I'm thinking of just adding Gajuma, and Callegia being a country that used to be in territory that now belongs to Kimlasca, Malkuth, and Daath (so we can have Eugene~). And the Sacred Beasts are integral to the story in that during the Dawn Age and later the Fonic War, the Sacred Beast King Yuris grew angry with the humans, warring over the Seventh Fonon.

So in addition to stopping the war and recording the Score, Yulia had also used the Key of Lorelei and her pact with Lorelei to seal the Sacred Beasts (who were masters of the world in a way similar the Entelexeia were in Vesperia) so Yuris couldn't awake. The Sacred Beasts were sealed in passage rings, but over two thousand years, the Yulian system is weakening, what with the destruction of Hod, one of the key passage rings to the system.

There is no question that Yuris would want to destroy humanity, but not all of the Sacred Beasts are of the same mind. So Fenia from almost nothing but Fifth Fonons creates our beloved little Mao. So Mao's got the whole world on his shoulders as passage rings are destroyed, go out of control, and ultimately stop working.

Veigue and the others and their pacts with the remaining Sacred Beasts remain to be seen.

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Tales of Rebirth (c) Namco Bandai
Art (c) Hikaru Irving