Mares #
The Mares were not mere hallucinations but shared visions that exploited the cognitive architecture of their victims,- -inducing paralysing fear.
Mares are nightmarish shared hallucinations, often compared to sleep paralysis demons. We seem to occasionally see these mares in the ARG, with several characters being confirmed to suffer from them.
The transferral of mares can also be genetical, as evidenced by Lyra Lauren inheriting them from her father Dallus, despite her being born at ARC/HIVE.
Background #
We first learn about the mares in Project D.U.S.T., a document detailing a lot of the research that took place during the ARC/HIVE era of Nex Gen, as well as previous research done by the Cult of Mantra.
The document tells us Dallus is still very much suffering from mares, as well as his youngest daughter Lyra. While Elena went into labour with her during their escape in Operation Trinity, she ended up being born in the safety of ARC/HIVE per Dallus’ Diary.
Unbeleevable Episode 2 speaks about the event at October Palace, at the concert of Skys & the Starjammers. At this time, leader Skys was already suffering from mares from taking a lot of drugs. Here, he demonstrated some of his extraordinary abilities, which are left vague. This convinces Dallus and Strassman to start working with the cult leader.
From Project D.U.S.T.’s research proposal we also learn that the cult was able to fend off hundreds of troops by using “advanced psychological tactics”. Some of these members may have been able to “harness dark matter”, which seems to strongly be related to the mares. It seems like many cult members gained the ability to manipulate mares through psychological/physical trauma as well as P.S.Y., or Psychoactive Structured Yttrium. The cult members were largely wiped out during the Fall of October Palace, an event depicted in the official music video for Mantra.
The “Special Six”, a set of children also managed to fight off their attackers using abilities similar to that of P.S.Y. Dr. Elias Mortem remarks that these abilities are either cultivated (which means they would have been experimented on) or innate (they were born with them). These children were recovered during Operation Trinity and are brought to ARC/HIVE.
Read More #
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