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Mythological/Historical Information

Ara "The Beautiful" mythical king of Armenia who allegedly lived during the 800s BC. There is a single significant story about Ara, which is the basis for the non-plant aspects of the Ishtarian unit.

Ara's beauty (back in those days, 'handsome' and 'beautiful' were interchangeable for both genders) was so great that it was well-known throughout the area. The queen of Assyria, known as Shamiram, heard of his beauty and tried to sway him to marry her by sending a letter to him. He kindly declined her proposal, but she wasn't okay with "just being friends" (it rarely ever works). In response to her heartfelt proposal being rejected, Shamiram declared war on Armenia (ya know, the natural response to rejection). Her end goal to this war was not to kill Ara, however. Her intention was to have him captured in battle, but others had different plans. Some sources say that it was her sons, while others say it was her jealous lover, but someone killed Ara with a poison arrow.

Again, the stories branch off here by source, but we'll go with the story that corresponds with AoI's lore. After Ara's untimely death, Shamiram had his body brought to her palace to be resurrected by the dog spirit Alrez, whose licks could revive the dead (seriously, who comes up with this stuff?). By some miracle, this tactic worked. Ara lived again and went on to be worshipped as a god of rebirth.



Even with all this information, we can't stop learning yet. Sit back down, class. There's more.



AoI's Ara is a character of dual meaning. An Ara is a miniature spring daffodil in the amaryllidaceae family that is planted in groups. It's long name is 'narcissus cyclamineus' and comes from Spain and Portugal. Ara is yet another plant pun character. Interestingly, the daffodil is a symbol of rebirth, which goes great with someone who rose from the dead.



In-Game Description

There are 4 versions of Ara available to date:



Original

"It was a sad day for us, and our queen. Our beautiful princess, another victim of the battlefield. To many this is where the story ends, but some say - some say she's still alive, resting in a temporary slumber. There's only one person who would - You wanna know who, huh? Gonna cost ya..."



As is typical for an Ishtarian unit based on older folklore, the original version of Ara gives a brief yet vague background of the character of legend with an Ishtarian twist, particularly the fact that this Ara is female (something you'd expect since the ratio of women to men in Ishtaria is 100:1). Rather than rising from the dead in her original body, this Ara seems to have risen in a new body as a younger girl. Because Japan, school is the focal point of life. Therefore, she must go to school like everyone else her "age". This change in body seems to be a side effect of whatever poison the Ishtarian Semiramis (another spelling of Shamiram) had used on her.

The "temporary slumber" mentioned here tells us that Ara is only separated from her real body. The body is still alive and in a comatose state. This 'false death' is somewhat the similar to other tales of the man named Ara. In versions of the story of Ara taught in folklore today, Ara never did rise from the dead. Instead, Shamiram buried his body in the foot of a mountain and had one of her lovers pretend to be him to prevent further war between Assyria and Armenia. While the new "Ara" kept the peace between these countries, the real Ara was rotting in a hidden grave.



Swimsuit

"Children love to play on the beach...How many days has Ara been watching them, wondering when she will finally be able to escape this body she's been placed into? Unhappy, she let out a sigh...Only when her friend called out for her did she crack a smile. Perhaps this experience hasn't been as bad as she had originally thought."



We continue the story of Ara~chan as she tries to learn to live with her condition. Being separated from her real body and former life has saddened her to the point that she can't enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Fortunately, having friends is a good fix for that.



Christmas

"Phew, I made it... And without Semiramis spotting me! Time to enjoy a stress free Christmas! Hey, who are you? Santa's Helper, hmm? Leave me alone! Can't you see I'm trying to have - Wait, what? You know Semiramis!? Let me apologize - Hey, where are you going!? Stooooooop!!!"



Ara, ever under the watchful eye of the one who put her in this situation, has decided to try to go unnoticed at least for a little while so she can celebrate Christmas. Based upon unit descriptions, the person she's talking to here is Ruprecht, "Santa's Helper". How she knows Semiramis... That's a KYU for another day. Anyhow, when Ara discovers that Ruprecht knows Semiramis, her desperation to get back to her real body comes out, taking a risk of blowing her cover to get any information she can.



Platinum

"Semiramis...When will you give me the antidote? Do you realize how much time has passed!? Thanks to you, I've almost even made it to graduation here...All I want to do is return to - It's going to take more time!? Aren't you even the slightest bit - Ugh...We'll again talk after school..."



Based on this exchange, Ruprecht gave Ara all the information she needed to get in contact with Semiramis. Semiramis has apparently been working on an antidote for Ara's affliction, probably out of guilt, as expressed in her quotes. She's not done with it yet, and Ara is about at the end of her patience. Fortunately for Semiramis, Ara is coerced to be a good student and has to leave. After all, she's gone all the way through high school at this point. May as well finish.





Images



Original



The Ara that started it all is far from beautiful. She's kawaii, and knowing the difference between kawaii and beautiful is the difference between freedom and going to jail for being a pedo.



Ara is wearing a schoolgirl sailor suit seen in just about every anime ever. She has a very youthful appearance. Showing her true age, she's wearing an old-school backpack that's more of a briefcase worn on the back. She's also carrying a mysterious object hidden under a blanket. We'll see what it is later.

Although an ara is a type of daffodil, the developers of the game decided to associate Ara with flowers native to Japan, the Sakura. The Sakura is a Japanese cherry blossom known for its star shape. This shape is found on the coattail of her jacket. She carries a color theme matching the Sakura, utilizing pink and white as her main colors.

Her +1 goes more in-depth into the symbols she's supposed to be personifying. To emphasize her youthfulness, Ara wears hair clips like most girls did in the '90s. She's carrying more of her school supplies than before, showing us her recorder and test tubes (see the attached video if you don't know what a recorder is). The ribbons attached to her shirt are an off-and-on feature that she selectively incorporates into her outfit. Blowing off into the wind is what shows us more about how she was in her previous life. It's a witch's hat adorned with Sakura blossoms, which is what she wore before her death. This is backed up by a quote in her Platinum form.



Ara +2 tries to be as much like herself as she can, donning full combat attire per Ishtarian standards. This includes a white unitard designed similarly to the one worn by Alice +2 with the addition of Sakura on her legs. The ribbons on her collar return, joined together with a Sakura. We finally get to see what was under the blanket: it's a magic wand in the shape of a blossoming Sakura. Her hat in this version is white with Neko ears. Based upon her other versions, this is a purely aesthetic feature. Again, school comes first, so she kept her skirt on just in case something school-related happens.



Swimsuit



Swimsuit Ara follows a similar pattern to OG Ara with a swimsuit resembling her unitard, including the schoolgirl sailor collar. She is surrounded by tropical flowers and... some type of alcohol. Let's remind ourselves that she's 13 at the oldest, making this highly illegal, irresponsible, and dangerous. What's more disturbing is the ice cream she's holding. It's doused in blood and is sparkling. This little psychopath is trying to cure herself by drinking unicorn blood.

At +1, she replaced the ribbons about her neck with flowers behind her back. Her swimsuit has been made more simplistic, and now there's even more alcohol. The charges keep piling up for this beach's liquor salesmen. In this form, she has accessories that serve no functional purpose, such as the random garters on her thighs that she separated from her socks. She finished preparing her ice cream dish with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Even though no bites have been taken from the dessert, she has the spoon in her mouth and seems to be enjoying it. This stuff is truly enchanted with the power of a unicorn.

SS Ara +2 is drastically different. For the first time, we see Ara without her trademark sailor collar. She's changed it up on us by wearing a schoolgirl-style swimsuit. School is still the most important thing in the universe, so she kept her backpack handy with her chemistry homework in tow. In this version, she has both the ribbons and the flower arrangements behind her. This time, her ribbons and flowers are multicolored in honoring the traditions of tropical paradises. The random garters return, and their size is just obnoxious at this point. Something else that returns is the set of hair braids, but they're made of either seashells or shark teeth. About her waist, there is a pattern resembling a royal crown, reminding us that Ara is a queen/princess. Ara brings back her wand, but this time it is fashioned after tropical flowers rather than a Sakura blossom. Lastly, we learn in this version of Ara that SHE IS JACKED. She has professional athlete tier abs. She'll snap you like a twig if you look at her wrong.



Christmas



Christmas Ara puts a Christmas-y spin on the features that are common to Ara's other forms. Let's start at the top, shall we? Her headwear is a green sailor's cap. Her hair is decorated with a ribbon with holly and a bell in the spirit of Christmas. Her consistently used bows are a pine tree green. She's wearing a Santa coat that somehow has a schoolgirl sailor collar. She brings back the ribbons tied around her back, and the flower arrangement has been replaced with snowy white cotton, which also have green bows of their own. Even on Christmas break, school is of utmost importance, so she brought her backpack with her along with a bell, ribbon, and holly. The pattern of the lining of her coat is reminiscent of the Sakura color scheme.

At +1, Ara took off her hat so that she could wear a band with a yellow poinsettia. Her bows have been upgraded to have bells on them, and the bell on her backpack has been upgraded to be a stocking with a micro-wreath. She's smiling now, probably because she's finally figured out that wearing gloves makes your hands feel warm in the cold. Her color scheme has shifted from red to blue, and the ribbons coming out her back have stars (like the stars people put on top of Christmas trees) on the ends. It's a series of tiny changes that add up to a substantially different-looking Ara~Chan.

Christmas Ara +2 decided that taking a Christmas vacation is for the birds. Working is where it's at, so she's volunteered to be a Santa for the evening. New hat, new hair bow, less clothes. Yep, this is a true Ishtarian citizen. Fortunately, since she was already so thoroughly covered, she's still dressed pretty modestly except for her legs that are going to be frostbitten before the night is over. Her backpack is overflowing with toys for all the good girls and boys. The heart symbol found on her cape and belt is the same as the symbol on the exterior of her coat at +1. She has new hairclips that are a recolored version of her SS hairclips. Her wand is a half-wreath mounted on some sort of metal plate with a star crest on it, very similar to the



Platinum



Platinum Ara is supposed to be the closest to her old self, which is why she says "Time to show you the real me...It is spring after all". She's still a student, though, so she kept some of her schoolgirl features. Her color scheme is purple/pink and green for the Sakura. Her outfit in this version is nothing less than a witch's outfit. Her hat has a similar pattern around the brim as her bathing suit had, and it's also wrapped about with vines that somehow grow Sakura blossoms at regular intervals. Purple Sakura pendants are mounted on her yellow bows. She brings back the ribbons, in the front this time,with lotus blossoms on the ends. Her wand is a weapon held together by magic (the Sakura-covered ring is floating in midair), and it's powered by a massive gem, so it's probably very powerful. Let's not forget that SCHOOL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD, so Ara brings her backpack with her everywhere she goes. She's near graduation, and this tactic has worked so far for her, so there's really no reason to stop now.



Skills



Besides P7 Ara's unique, she follows a pattern with all her skills. Each version of Ara will have an active skill and a passive skill. The active skill will always be named after plants and utilizes alliteration to display creativity. The passive skill will always be a reference to Semiramis



Passive Skill: Prayer of Semiramis

Passive Skill: Curse of Semiramis

Passive Skill: Semiramis's Blind Love

Unique Skill: Still My Turn!

Rush Skill: Sakura Storm

Multi Skill: Ferocious Flowerbed

Multi Skill: A Most Beautiful Bouquet

Rush Skill: Vernal Viciousness



Power Play



Red: Never Ending Summer- Per the Wiki, this power play includes several summer units from Seaside Packs, Belly of the Beast (Kraken), The Gift of Summer, and A Call to Arms: Death Warrant. Units included are Ba'al (Swimsuit), Scathach (Swimsuit), Ara (Swimsuit), Jack (Swimsuit), Sachiel, Cycnus, Kraken (Swimsuit), Cthylla, Goemon (Swimsuit), Helena (Swimsuit), and Cthugua (Swimsuit).



That's all for the Wiki's Power Plays. I'm sure our local Power Play expert will make a fool of me by showing another 3 Power Plays that aren't on the Wiki.



Thank you all so much for reading. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed preparing it. I know that some of the pictures were scaled strangely, and I apologize for that! Make sure to vote in the poll and welcome meriada Know Your Units team! meriada



Previous KYU Next KYU Hello, Ishtaria! I'm your host Esdeath, and this is Know Your Units! This issue will be focused on a character whose antics have allowed her to transcend cuteness and to become full-on kawaii. Of course, I'm talking about everybody's favorite non-Mandragora plant girl, Ara.Ara "The Beautiful" mythical king of Armenia who allegedly lived during the 800s BC. There is a single significant story about Ara, which is the basis for the non-plant aspects of the Ishtarian unit.Ara's beauty (back in those days, 'handsome' and 'beautiful' were interchangeable for both genders) was so great that it was well-known throughout the area. The queen of Assyria, known as Shamiram, heard of his beauty and tried to sway him to marry her by sending a letter to him. He kindly declined her proposal, but she wasn't okay with "just being friends" (it rarely ever works). In response to her heartfelt proposal being rejected, Shamiram declared war on Armenia (ya know, the natural response to rejection). Her end goal to this war was not to kill Ara, however. Her intention was to have him captured in battle, but others had different plans. Some sources say that it was her sons, while others say it was her jealous lover, but someone killed Ara with a poison arrow.Again, the stories branch off here by source, but we'll go with the story that corresponds with AoI's lore. After Ara's untimely death, Shamiram had his body brought to her palace to be resurrected by the dog spirit Alrez, whose licks could revive the dead (seriously, who comes up with this stuff?). By some miracle, this tactic worked. Ara lived again and went on to be worshipped as a god of rebirth.Even with all this information, we can't stop learning yet. Sit back down, class. There's more.AoI's Ara is a character of dual meaning. An Ara is a miniature spring daffodil in the amaryllidaceae family that is planted in groups. It's long name is 'narcissus cyclamineus' and comes from Spain and Portugal. Ara is yet another plant pun character. Interestingly, the daffodil is a symbol of rebirth, which goes great with someone who rose from the dead.There are 4 versions of Ara available to date:As is typical for an Ishtarian unit based on older folklore, the original version of Ara gives a brief yet vague background of the character of legend with an Ishtarian twist, particularly the fact that this Ara is female (something you'd expect since the ratio of women to men in Ishtaria is 100:1). Rather than rising from the dead in her original body, this Ara seems to have risen in a new body as a younger girl. Because Japan, school is the focal point of life. Therefore, she must go to school like everyone else her "age". This change in body seems to be a side effect of whatever poison the Ishtarian Semiramis (another spelling of Shamiram) had used on her.The "temporary slumber" mentioned here tells us that Ara is only separated from her real body. The body is still alive and in a comatose state. This 'false death' is somewhat the similar to other tales of the man named Ara. In versions of the story of Ara taught in folklore today, Ara never did rise from the dead. Instead, Shamiram buried his body in the foot of a mountain and had one of her lovers pretend to be him to prevent further war between Assyria and Armenia. While the new "Ara" kept the peace between these countries, the real Ara was rotting in a hidden grave.We continue the story of Ara~chan as she tries to learn to live with her condition. Being separated from her real body and former life has saddened her to the point that she can't enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Fortunately, having friends is a good fix for that.Ara, ever under the watchful eye of the one who put her in this situation, has decided to try to go unnoticed at least for a little while so she can celebrate Christmas. Based upon unit descriptions, the person she's talking to here is Ruprecht, "Santa's Helper". How she knows Semiramis... That's a KYU for another day. Anyhow, when Ara discovers that Ruprecht knows Semiramis, her desperation to get back to her real body comes out, taking a risk of blowing her cover to get any information she can.Based on this exchange, Ruprecht gave Ara all the information she needed to get in contact with Semiramis. Semiramis has apparently been working on an antidote for Ara's affliction, probably out of guilt, as expressed in her quotes. She's not done with it yet, and Ara is about at the end of her patience. Fortunately for Semiramis, Ara is coerced to be a good student and has to leave. After all, she's gone all the way through high school at this point. May as well finish.The Ara that started it all is far from beautiful. She's kawaii, and knowing the difference between kawaii and beautiful is the difference between freedom and going to jail for being a pedo.Ara is wearing a schoolgirl sailor suit seen in just about every anime ever. She has a very youthful appearance. Showing her true age, she's wearing an old-school backpack that's more of a briefcase worn on the back. She's also carrying a mysterious object hidden under a blanket. We'll see what it is later.Although an ara is a type of daffodil, the developers of the game decided to associate Ara with flowers native to Japan, the Sakura. The Sakura is a Japanese cherry blossom known for its star shape. This shape is found on the coattail of her jacket. She carries a color theme matching the Sakura, utilizing pink and white as her main colors.Her +1 goes more in-depth into the symbols she's supposed to be personifying. To emphasize her youthfulness, Ara wears hair clips like most girls did in the '90s. She's carrying more of her school supplies than before, showing us her recorder and test tubes (see the attached video if you don't know what a recorder is). The ribbons attached to her shirt are an off-and-on feature that she selectively incorporates into her outfit. Blowing off into the wind is what shows us more about how she was in her previous life. It's a witch's hat adorned with Sakura blossoms, which is what she wore before her death. This is backed up by a quote in her Platinum form.Ara +2 tries to be as much like herself as she can, donning full combat attire per Ishtarian standards. This includes a white unitard designed similarly to the one worn by Alice +2 with the addition of Sakura on her legs. The ribbons on her collar return, joined together with a Sakura. We finally get to see what was under the blanket: it's a magic wand in the shape of a blossoming Sakura. Her hat in this version is white with Neko ears. Based upon her other versions, this is a purely aesthetic feature. Again, school comes first, so she kept her skirt on just in case something school-related happens.Swimsuit Ara follows a similar pattern to OG Ara with a swimsuit resembling her unitard, including the schoolgirl sailor collar. She is surrounded by tropical flowers and... some type of alcohol. Let's remind ourselves that she's 13 at the oldest, making this highly illegal, irresponsible, and dangerous. What's more disturbing is the ice cream she's holding. It's doused in blood and is sparkling. This little psychopath is trying to cure herself by drinking unicorn blood.At +1, she replaced the ribbons about her neck with flowers behind her back. Her swimsuit has been made more simplistic, and now there's even more alcohol. The charges keep piling up for this beach's liquor salesmen. In this form, she has accessories that serve no functional purpose, such as the random garters on her thighs that she separated from her socks. She finished preparing her ice cream dish with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Even though no bites have been taken from the dessert, she has the spoon in her mouth and seems to be enjoying it. This stuff is truly enchanted with the power of a unicorn.SS Ara +2 is drastically different. For the first time, we see Ara without her trademark sailor collar. She's changed it up on us by wearing a schoolgirl-style swimsuit. School is still the most important thing in the universe, so she kept her backpack handy with her chemistry homework in tow. In this version, she has both the ribbons and the flower arrangements behind her. This time, her ribbons and flowers are multicolored in honoring the traditions of tropical paradises. The random garters return, and their size is just obnoxious at this point. Something else that returns is the set of hair braids, but they're made of either seashells or shark teeth. About her waist, there is a pattern resembling a royal crown, reminding us that Ara is a queen/princess. Ara brings back her wand, but this time it is fashioned after tropical flowers rather than a Sakura blossom. Lastly, we learn in this version of Ara that. She has professional athlete tier abs. She'll snap you like a twig if you look at her wrong.Christmas Ara puts a Christmas-y spin on the features that are common to Ara's other forms. Let's start at the top, shall we? Her headwear is a green sailor's cap. Her hair is decorated with a ribbon with holly and a bell in the spirit of Christmas. Her consistently used bows are a pine tree green. She's wearing a Santa coat that somehow has a schoolgirl sailor collar. She brings back the ribbons tied around her back, and the flower arrangement has been replaced with snowy white cotton, which also have green bows of their own. Even on Christmas break, school is of utmost importance, so she brought her backpack with her along with a bell, ribbon, and holly. The pattern of the lining of her coat is reminiscent of the Sakura color scheme.At +1, Ara took off her hat so that she could wear a band with a yellow poinsettia. Her bows have been upgraded to have bells on them, and the bell on her backpack has been upgraded to be a stocking with a micro-wreath. She's smiling now, probably because she's finally figured out that wearing gloves makes your hands feel warm in the cold. Her color scheme has shifted from red to blue, and the ribbons coming out her back have stars (like the stars people put on top of Christmas trees) on the ends. It's a series of tiny changes that add up to a substantially different-looking Ara~Chan.Christmas Ara +2 decided that taking a Christmas vacation is for the birds. Working is where it's at, so she's volunteered to be a Santa for the evening. New hat, new hair bow, less clothes. Yep, this is a true Ishtarian citizen. Fortunately, since she was already so thoroughly covered, she's still dressed pretty modestly except for her legs that are going to be frostbitten before the night is over. Her backpack is overflowing with toys for all the good girls and boys. The heart symbol found on her cape and belt is the same as the symbol on the exterior of her coat at +1. She has new hairclips that are a recolored version of her SS hairclips. Her wand is a half-wreath mounted on some sort of metal plate with a star crest on it, very similar to the Star of Bethlehem as it's shown in every movie and book about the birth of Jesus.Platinum Ara is supposed to be the closest to her old self, which is why she says "Time to show you the real me...It is spring after all". She's still a student, though, so she kept some of her schoolgirl features. Her color scheme is purple/pink and green for the Sakura. Her outfit in this version is nothing less than a witch's outfit. Her hat has a similar pattern around the brim as her bathing suit had, and it's also wrapped about with vines that somehow grow Sakura blossoms at regular intervals. Purple Sakura pendants are mounted on her yellow bows. She brings back the ribbons, in the front this time,with lotus blossoms on the ends. Her wand is a weapon held together by magic (the Sakura-covered ring is floating in midair), and it's powered by a massive gem, so it's probably very powerful. Let's not forget that, so Ara brings her backpack with her everywhere she goes. She's near graduation, and this tactic has worked so far for her, so there's really no reason to stop now.Besides P7 Ara's unique, she follows a pattern with all her skills. Each version of Ara will have an active skill and a passive skill. The active skill will always be named after plants and utilizes alliteration to display creativity. The passive skill will always be a reference to SemiramisPassive Skill: Prayer of SemiramisPassive Skill: Curse of SemiramisPassive Skill: Semiramis's Blind LoveUnique Skill: Still My Turn!Rush Skill: Sakura StormMulti Skill: Ferocious FlowerbedMulti Skill: A Most Beautiful BouquetRush Skill: Vernal ViciousnessRed: Never Ending Summer- Per the Wiki, this power play includes several summer units from Seaside Packs, Belly of the Beast (Kraken), The Gift of Summer, and A Call to Arms: Death Warrant. Units included are Ba'al (Swimsuit), Scathach (Swimsuit), Ara (Swimsuit), Jack (Swimsuit), Sachiel, Cycnus, Kraken (Swimsuit), Cthylla, Goemon (Swimsuit), Helena (Swimsuit), and Cthugua (Swimsuit).That's all for the Wiki's Power Plays. I'm sure our local Power Play expert will make a fool of me by showing another 3 Power Plays that aren't on the Wiki.Thank you all so much for reading. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed preparing it. I know that some of the pictures were scaled strangely, and I apologize for that! Make sure to vote in the poll and welcometo the party! That's right, we've added another member to theteam!will be preparing the next issue, so make sure to send some encouragement that way! kameron

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