Double Stars

[DoReMi_Vampire]

Tomo, Siegfried, Feather, Abizboah, Viki. All these characters have one thing in common, that they have two separate stars of destiny. It's something I often wish was better explained in the games.
So my question to you all is, do you think that this should just be regarded as a way to get around a gameplay mechanic with no consequence to the continuity? Or do you believe this actually means that these characters were born under two stars at the same time, and that this should become part of the Suikoden lore?

- If you can't be born under two stars at the same time it would mean in Viki's case that she and her younger version in SIII are completly different people.

- If you however can be born under two stars does this mean that the character is given two paths of destiny to follow?

Personally, I'd prefer the latter. I think it would be a great opportunity to take something that started out as a programming-mistake and turn it into something that could give more spice to the story-telling.

[gilgamesh31]

Thats interesting about Viki and small Viki i never thought about that, perhaps small viki comes from an alternate dimension or the other way around? I think it was just a gameplay mechanic in regards to the double star question. Also Eresh and Euram share the same star in Suikoden V although you can only choose one or the other.

[veriaqa]

Tomo only has one star of destiny, the one your game play choose for her. Basically its like alternate reality, there one reality that tomo star is tensyo and another reality that her star is chikyuu. But in each reality tomo only has one star. The POD (point of divergence) is when you choose between Kasumi and Valeria.

This is true for Sigfried, Abizboah and Feather. They dont have two stars, its only a matter of what alternate reality.

If you ask which is official thats the beauty of Suikoden, what official is whatever your gameplay had. Thats one reason Konami never released official names for Suiko hero.

Eresh and Euram only have one star, but they occupy the same star. So you can only recruit one of them.

Each person in Suikoverse can only have one stars of destiny... but then we have Viki.

[DoReMi_Vampire]

Still, exactly how can Tomo's star, or anyone's star for that matter, be decided by Riou, a guy she had not even met at that point?

I'm of course not saying the theory about alternate realities is wrong since we already know about the existence of other dimensions.
But in that case what star did she belong to before that point? Did she not belong to any star at all up until that point (if it's even possible to be born without one)?

I don't know, I can accept it but it always seemed like a stretch to me personally.

[Raww Le Klueze]

It's not decided by Riou. If you choose Kasumi it just so happens that Tomo was always born under the same star as Valeria and vice versa.

[Antimatzist]

btw I have a question about this "born under a star" thing. Is it ever stated what this means? Is it dependant on your birthday, like the zodiac signs or something? That would mean that e.g. all Tenkai's birthdays must be somewhat close to each other. Also tis would mean that e.g. Tomo's birthday is variable.

Does anyone have an expication for me? I don't know anything about astrology so some help would be appreciated.

[DoReMi_Vampire]

@Raww Le Klueze
That's kinda what I'm getting at. While Riou didn't chose Tomo's star directly nor knew knowingly his choice would affect her you can't really deny that he's the main cause for it.

@Antimatzist
Yes I'm basically assuming that stars are decided from birth like with the zodiac, I could of course be wrong since it's not fully explained in the games. I'm simply going from what I think would be the most logical thing to say in the situation.

- Gensopedia offers some trivia on a few stars e.g. "the path of the Tenei Star (Gremio, Lyon) can be seen following another star in what seems to be a protective manner".
- In SI Leknaat is a seer and uses astrology to see possible futures.

From this info I assume that the stars are moving in certain paths over the sky and when a person is born they're assigned the star that's above them at the time. And here is where Tomo comes in. Either she would have to have been born when two stars were alligned, or she was born right in the middle of a shifting timeperiod between two stars.

My theories are complicated I know, but I'm just the kind of guy who likes figuring these things out.

[Raww Le Klueze]

That's kinda what I'm getting at. While Riou didn't chose Tomo's star directly nor knew knowingly his choice would affect her you can't really deny that he's the main cause for it

You're absolutely not getting it. Her star doesn't change at all. She was always Tensyo or Chikyu, Riou doesn't cause it in any way, shape or form.

You're confusing a gameplay mechanic with a story mechanic. Her star doesn't change nor does Riou pick it, it's a mechanic in place to make sure that Kasumi and Valeria KEEP THEIR stars not to give any ambiguity to Tomo.

And no, it's not a zodiac sign, it's unrelated to birthday, simple logic should tell you that. You think all main strategist are born in may?

[DoReMi_Vampire]

@Raww Le Klueze
You're making a lot of good points and I'm sorry for losing my sight on the fact she was always both. So I guess she's still both even after she gets recruited, it's just that either Valeria or Kasumi bumps her out of the other slot in the Tablet of stars.
I guess that in a world that's heavely influenced by destiny and supposedly was created by Darkness that shed a Tear that gave birth to Sword and Shield yadda yadda, that the whole zodiac thing didn't seem like the most impossible thing.

Sorry again. And I'm not stupid enough to say every strategist is born in May.

[Antimatzist]

And no, it's not a zodiac sign, it's unrelated to birthday, simple logic should tell you that. You think all main strategist are born in may?

Yeah, I thought that as well. But maybe the astrology in the Suikoden world is not based on such a regular basis? Or maybe once in a while, a star is relatively bright on the sky an when you're born on that day, it affects your life. Is there a real principle like that in real astrology?

[Raww Le Klueze]

Supposedly Tierkreis tries to explain something about it. I must have missed that part or I have managed to supress it along with the rest of that travesty cause I can't recall any such conversation though.

[DoReMi_Vampire]

In real astrology, in ancient times, the stars were basically observed because they worked as a calender because the earth and sun would be alligned with a specifik zodiac-sign over one month. I don't really know the details of it and I don't really think it would explain much about the Suikoden universe even if I did know.
I guess who gets and who doesn't get to become a star of destiny is left to the whole aspect of destiny in the series. Maybe the stars have a will of their own just like the True runes and choose the people they wish to represent them on earth?

I don't have much interest in playing Tierkries but I might keep my eyes open for info on the stars by watching some Let's Plays some day.