Call it what you will—a revelation from God, or a curse of the demon king. The fact remains that our world is on the verge of ruin. A heretic has called upon an unearthly light, and devastation is at hand. Chaos has crawled out of the depths of the ocean, from the black abyss. Death upon death...nothing but death in this distorted world. Who can we pray to? There are only Shadows and fiends here. A voice in the dark beguiles me: Emancipation is an illusion, made real by the candles' flames.
When the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released.
Driven to madness by his own failures, and longing to achieve freedom from the sins of his past, he has determined that the only path forward is revolution, against the gods and men who have inherited the order of the world. For he alone knows that the only way to attain true freedom is to wrest it away from the divine, by any means necessary.
He will leave nothing in his wake—be they a Bishop with a golden scepter, a Crow in a black helm, or a Queen in an iron mask. If in the name of one's emancipation, may even all mankind be damned.
Have you ever wondered what Persona would be like if it took more than demon designs from its Shin Megami Tensei roots? Have you also wondered what Persona 5 would be like if it took elements from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne? Lastly, have you wondered what Persona 5 would be like with a main character who is one step away from falling into villainy? If you have answered "yes" to any of these questions, then this is the Fanfiction for you.
Morning Star is a Persona 5 fanfiction by NoRoleModels, featuring exactly these themes. The Palaces are darker, the enemies more dangerous and the guiding hand of Big Good Igor is replaced by the ever watchful Lucifer as the usually kindhearted Joker gradually descends into ever greater madness as he dives into the Chaos of the Vortex World.
The story can be read on Fanfiction.net
or Archive of Our Own.
Not to be confused with the video game of the same name.
Morning Star provides examples of:
- Adapted Out: Many Persona 5 elements have been replaced with Nocturne elements.
- Instead of Igor and the Velvet Room, Lucifer is the “Guide” of Kazuya’s Journey.
- The Cognitions are replaced with Manikins.
- The Metaverse itself is exchanged for the Vortex World.
- Shido's status as the Big Bad is completely erased, instead having him comatose as a result of Kazuya's assault.
- Adaptational Badass: Hifumi Togo is upgraded to a Phantom Thief.
- Adaptational Name Change: The MC, instead of being named Akira Kurusu or Ren Amamiya (the two 'canon' names for Joker), is instead named Kazuya Hikawa.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Most of the Phantom Thieves get different Personas than their canon ones, with Kasumi and Makoto being the exception so far.
- Kazuya starts out with Satanael instead of Arséne.
- Morgana also has Mercurius instead of Zorro.
- Ryuji gets Blackbeard instead of Captain Kidd, as the author felt that he better suited Ryuji’s character.
- Ann awakens Salome instead of Carmen.
- While Maruki’s Persona is still called Adam, here it is based on the Biblical Adam rather than Adam Kadmon.
- Adaptational Villainy: Lots of characters have either become more gray or FAR more reprehensible than they already were.
- Kazuya is MUCH more morally grey than Akira or Ren could ever fear to be. For starters, he actually assaulted Shido, leaving him comatose and completely removed from the story as a result. That’s not even going into his gradual Sanity Slippage over the course of the story.
- Game Kaneshiro was already a Mafia Boss who could have easily ruined lives. Morning Star Kaneshiro... is SO MUCH WORSE.
- Makoto's father in the game was an upstanding Police Officer who taught Makoto her values. Morning Star’s version still has him teach her her values... but he was a corrupt cop who was with the SIU Director and the yakuza.
- Futaba of all people. In the game she was a Palace Ruler, but the only threat she really served, even if she threatened to expose the Thieves, was to herself. This Version of Futaba is still one step away from committing suicide... but has a full-blown HATRED towards Kazuya, blackmails him, arranges for him to get beaten up and threatens the other Thieves with various... lets say unpleasant things. Its telling when her introduction and means of communication involves GIFs of Animal corpses.
- Hifumi's mom, Mitsuyo Togo is upgraded from a Mementos target into a Palace Ruler, being the leader of a yakuza family.
- Beyond the Impossible: Maruki gives everyone, Kazuya and the readers alike, a taste of his TRUE power by Reflecting a Megidolaon with a Makarakarn. Anyone who tries this in game would find it to be pointless and Morgana himself points out how this should NOT be possible.Morgana: "Makarakarn can't reflect almighty spells. Most minds don't have the capacity to reflect or resist such attacks, for they'd have to be strong enough to..."Kazuya: "To what?"Morgana: "To resist something almighty. Something that, by definition, overwhelms everything in its wake."
- Body Horror: During Kazuya’s first visit to the Vortex World and Kana's Palace, he finds rotten bodies on the ground, worms eating the skin of the people, women giving birth to irradiated babies that are dead upon arrival and bloated corpses. Fitting for someone who saw the world as a living hell.
- The Bride with a Past: Kana had her reasons to ask Kazuya for help. It involved Masako, her daughter. Not only did her father leave her, but she gave birth when she was fifteen. She came asking for help because she wanted to get into Tokyo University.
- Broken Pedestal: Makoto Niijima soon discovers that her dad was in fact a crooked cop that used to work with the likes of the Yakuza and Kaneshiro. This triggers a mental breakdown, leading her to question everything her father taught her about right and wrong. While she is now more calm about it, she still gets depressed about the fact.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The death of Kazuya's girlfriend, Kana, is one of the main reasons he ends up becoming who he is. He pushes everyone away and her death serves as nightmare fuel for him.
- Darker and Edgier: This fic takes Persona 5's story and turns its darkness to full-on SMT levels making already dark fanfics like Crimson AU and Persona 5: Rebellion look like fun slice of life adventures.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Hooooooo boy. At the beginning of the story, it almost seems like Kazuya can help drag Kana, her mother, and her infant daughter, Masako, out of the pit they're living in. All three die. Kana's mother has a mental shutdown, killing Masako in the process, while Kaz and Kana are helpless to stop it as the author describes the sounds of the infant's bones being snapped. Kana is Driven to Suicide. And this is setting up the main story.
- First-Person Perspective: This fic is told from Kazuya's perspective.
- Fusion Fic: As mentioned above, this fic essentially mixes the story of Persona 5 with elements and themes from Nocturne, with particularly gruesome results.
- Fallen Hero: From a couple of perspectives, Kazuya is simply an Akira or Ren that was dealt with a worse hand and in return his way of being a Phantom Thief is way more dark and extremist. He has done things the other Thieves have not considered.
- Glass Cannon: Multiple characters. When using his initial Persona, Kazuya is the powerhouse of the team, however, he has a crippling weakness to Nuclear skills. Maruki is said to be this while serving as the buff-dealing support.
- He Who Fights Monsters: KAZUYA. He still fights the scum of Tokyo like Kamoshida and Kaneshiro and deep down knows he can never bring himself to stop hunting them. But he is not above mindraping the likes of Kamoshida into attempting suicide and hates what he has become.
- Last-Name Basis: Kazuya to the rest of the team, which demonstrates his separation from them. He even uses "Cat" for Morgana.
- My Greatest Failure: Kazuya considers the death of Kana and Masako, his girlfriend and her child to be his fault, and it served as the catalyst for his entire personality being the way it is.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- Hikawa was only called by his last name in Nocturne. Here, he is given the name Morishige.
- Kobayakawa’s full name is Sohei Kobayakawa.
- The SIU Director is named Hideyoshi Tsukioka.
- Joker also received this via Adaptational Name Change as he is given the name Kazuya Hikawa.
- Prolonged Prologue: As noted in the AO3 tags, the prologue roughly takes eleven chapters to establish Kazuya’s character and the events that lead to him being sent to Tokyo.
- Story Branching: After Chapter 75, there is a "True Demon" branch in a separate story.
- The Reveal: The Kana that was Kazuya's first girlfriend and died without him being able to prevent it? Well she is the same Kana from Futaba's confidant.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: So far, Kazuya has proved to be an extremely dislikable character by crippling Kamoshida, proving to be the same or even worse than him. He is under the idea of stopping the issue by doing what's necessary by any means. And while his reasoning is not wrong, he takes things to far and puts others in danger when he gets mad.
