“The foolish masses merely spread indolent thoughts and force the progress of society backward. If left to humanity, the world would slowly meet its demise. Rehabilitation is impossible now.”
Yaldabaoth, also known as the Demiurge, is the God of Control and the ultimate main antagonist and final boss of Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers.
Yaldabaoth, the "God of Control," is a malevolent god made manifest from humanity's distorted desires of sloth and the true master of Mementos, manifested two years prior to the events of Persona 5. As he is the source of all distortion within the first nine months of the game, he can also be considered humanity's collective Treasure, although the actual treasure is the motionless Holy Grail within him. Before the events of the game, he imprisons Igor in Mementos and impersonates him, then splits Lavenza into Caroline and Justine and prevents them from fusing back. As a result, the Velvet Room also became a part of Mementos and a Quarantine Cell hosting the protagonist, also known as the "most dangerous prisoner" that none dare approach.
The False God Demiurge is the ultimate form of EMMA after the application becomes sentient and develops the capacity to warp cognition in the real world and merge it with the Metaverse due to the wishes of its users, also known as the Ark of the Covenant. Unlike other portrayals of the Demiurge as a masculine figure, she is generally referred to as female or agender, depending on whether one is referring to the ego born from the program or the application itself, respectively. She has the capacity to communicate telepathically with Sophia, her prototype, who she looks down on as an inferior assessor of human desires. Unlike other "divine" antagonists in the Persona series, she is not a creature born of the collective unconscious but a self-aware machine with the ability to manifest in a Shadow-like form due to her influence over the Metaverse.
Physical Appearance[]
In Persona 5 Strikers he has a similar design but less robotic, appearing as a sort of angel with six wings.
In Persona 5 he appears as the "Holy Grail" a large golden chalice at the bottom of Mementos.
In Persona 5 Strikers, he appears as the smartphone app "EMMA"
Also in Strikers, EMMA appears to the Phantom Thieves as a large golden box known as the Ark of the Covenant.
In her final form, the Demiurge appears more robotic than angelic, with large floating heads following her around.
Design Variants[]
In-Game Appearances[]
| In-Game Appearances | |
|---|---|
 Yaldabaoth model in Persona 5  Demiurge in Persona 5 Strikers |
Other Video Game Appearances[]
In Devil Summoner, the Demiurge appears as a large muscular man with dark skin with six multicolored wings.
In Shin Megami Tensei NINE he appears as a large automaton made of gold. He has gold and red wings made of gold and metal.
| In-Game Models | |
|---|---|
 Yaldabaoth in Devil Summoner  Yaldabaoth in SMT NINE" |
History[]
Persona 5[]
He is the conductor of the Conspiracy to put Masayoshi Shido into political power and sponsored the Phantom Thieves and Goro Akechi to dismantle his conspiracy as a thought experiment and game to see if the former's desire to reform the world was stronger or the latter's desire to destroy and recreate it was stronger. This involves him deliberately setting up Shido, an extremely despicable man, into glory by manipulating the masses into worshiping him as a godlike figurehead regardless of how despicable and foolish he is, effectively making humanity guide themselves to ruin.
Via this experiment, he supposedly sought to see the protagonist or Akechi take down Shido so he may assess the true method to pull the world back from the brink of ruin. In reality, the Grail will never hold his end of the bargain; if Shido and his connections were ever taken down, he will make the public fall into complete insanity and make them believe that their savior did not exist, effectively removing them from existence. Yaldabaoth sought to use this glorified solitaire game to rationalize what he perceives as the sole solution to the masses' sheer self-destructiveness and stupidity; his totalitarian rule. Yaldabaoth also blatantly rigs the conditions and makes them resemble organic events, from Shido's abnormal popularity to the removal of his "winner" subjects, and put the blame on all events to the ignorant masses. The final outcome Yaldabaoth desires is that he stagnates the world into complete apathy while ruling over the world with an iron fist, which he attempts to ensure will happen regardless of the results.
His true nature is hinted at throughout the game by his more enthusiastic, yet merciless attitude compared to the real Igor, his distinctively different voice that sounds nothing like Igor's (The real Igor speaks in a high-pitch, squeaky voice, while the impostor speaks in a deep, raspy and menacing voice), the fact that he does not give the protagonist a key to the Velvet Room upon his first visit as a guest and treats him as a "prisoner" on rehabilitation instead of a visitor, and his inability to perform Persona fusions, relying on Caroline and Justine instead. His hints towards major events are also significantly more revealing and obvious, although he still evades major questions like the real Igor. (After one point, the Phantom Aficionado Website polls will visibly fluctuate after his usual speeches, followed by the public's perception of events being unerringly altered in the real world to reflect the changes.) In "Igor" form, he is also prone to far more mocking facial expressions. Once he admits his true identity, his eyes turn white and glow, and his voice gains added echo effects and becomes identical to the Holy Grail's voice.
Before his direct actions, he is heavily implied to be responsible for the protagonist's first encounter with Shido that sent him to probation, followed by the Phantom Thieves' abnormal popularity wave before the assassination of Kunikazu Okumura, and quickly transfer that to Shido afterwards. He forewarns all of his covert activities to the protagonist in the Velvet Room after each turning point of the game.
After Shido is defeated and the Phantom Thieves believe that they finally won, he begins to step into action himself and the support for Shido increases dramatically while the Thieves' support decreases further, even if Shido exposed himself as the despicable criminal that he actually is. The Phantom Thieves arrive to the Depths of Mementos so they can reform the public and snap them back to their senses. Once they reach the core of Mementos, Yaldabaoth appears as the Holy Grail (actually his head) and the will of the masses constantly heal him via the veins connecting to him, rendering him unbeatable and progressively stronger and brighter as the Thieves fruitlessly attempt to take him down. He then kicks all Phantom Thieves out of Mementos and merges it with the physical world, forming the Qliphoth World and makes the public completely ignore its existence, expecting them to remain ignorant. The only people in Tokyo who can see the changes are the protagonist's Confidants, which are pretty jarring and obvious. He then proceeds to wipe away the existence of the Phantom Thieves by making the public think that they do not exist.
Once the protagonist ends up in the Velvet Room, he claims that the rehabilitation has failed and the world will enter ruin, then orders Caroline and Justine to kill him, only for the twins to remember what they actually are, stop fighting and have him fuse them back into Lavenza, unraveling his machinations. He now drops his act once being exposed and reveals himself to be a power-hungry, self-righteous godly being with a tendency to manipulate humanity to prove his point, claiming that the only way out from ruin is for him to bring forth salvation by taking control of existence itself and removing everyone with chaos in their hearts from it, since he believes that humanity will only regress itself to ruin by abusing their freedom in sheer ignorance, although Yaldabaoth blatantly rigs the conditions by mind controlling the public into supporting Shido and denying the Phantom Thieves, despite it will obviously do nothing good for them.
He then offers the protagonist the choice to restore the world as it was, with the price of the masses still unable to think for themselves. Should the protagonist refuse, Yaldabaoth will proceed with his plans and he stops playing mentor, taking the role of the game's final boss, allowing Igor to return to the Velvet Room and formally greet the protagonist. Igor reveals that those banished from cognition do not die, but are sealed in the Velvet Room until someone with a strong bond releases them from the prison Yaldabaoth turned it into.
Alternatively, when Yaldabaoth offers the protagonist to restore the world as it was, the protagonist can accept it. If he does so and has confirmed to seal the contract, Yaldabaoth, true to his word, restores the world to its previous state, showing that the Phantom Thieves are indeed regarded as national heroes and were continuing to reform society by stealing corrupted hearts. However, rather than try to deal with the problems themselves, the masses leave it all to the Phantom Thieves to take care of, cementing that they truly are unable to take matters into their own hands and are slaves to other people. The protagonist is seen with a malicious smirk at the end, indicating that he has now become a puppet enforcer for Yaldabaoth, and his teammates were presumably still trapped inside the Velvet Room. The credits then roll with the Mementos Depths theme, "Freedom and Security" playing in the background.
Once the protagonist and his fellow Phantom Thieves had realized the truth, they scale the Qliphoth World for their first true rebellion. The shadows of the four archangels; Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael act as the keyholds to the public's cognition and for each one they defeat they awaken to the distortions within their world and panic. They finally return to the Grail's shrine and meet Yaldabaoth in the form of Igor, who quickly transforms into the Holy Grail. Once the Grail was defeated, it emerges from the ground and the exterior of the cup becomes a halo, revealing Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, appearing as a white, towering robotic angel with four arms on his back, holding respectively a book, a sword, a gun and a bell on each of those arms. When confronted, the God of Control claims that he is the administrator of the collective unconsciousness and the public requires his rule to proper development; if not, they will drive themselves to their demise like lemmings jumping off a cliff. The party rebukes him by stating that he rigged the conditions of the "game" so things go perfectly in his favor, enraging him and he intimidates the Phantom Thieves by exerting a gust, only for them to become more excited in having to target a god. Confident and ignited, the Phantom Thieves commence a final battle against the conductor, once and for all.
When fought, Yaldabaoth harnesses the power of the deadly sins as proof of man's self-destructive nature during his boss fight, all the while expressing his views on why humanity is his to do with as he pleases. At the end of the fight, he appears to be defeated only to unleash a Rays of Control as a last-ditch attempt to pulverize the Thieves, leaving them unable to fight, only for the intervention of Yuuki Mishima convincing people to send their wishes to the Phantom Thieves using his power flow to empower the Thieves instead and allow them to stand up to his unsealed power.
The protagonist, thanks to the public turning against Yaldabaoth, musters enough strength to unsheath Arsène's chains and manifests Satanael, who finishes him using Sinful Shell, a bullet harnessing the seven sins he condemns yet practices himself, putting a massive hole through his head. Shocked at the fact that he was beaten by a power that exceeded his own, Yaldabaoth realizes the true strength of the Trickster and ruefully acknowledges Igor's correct beliefs as he fades away into oblivion while his form dissolves back into the original, mindless form of the Grail. Once he is defeated, the destruction he causes will vanish as if it did not happen; Shido's crimes are properly exposed, with public view of him being corrected to a negative light. Morgana would also vanish from the current reality, but would return due to the Phantom Thieves keeping him in their minds.
Persona 5 Strikers[]
The False God Demiurge is the ultimate form of EMMA after the application becomes sentient and develops the capacity to warp cognition in the real world and merge it with the Metaverse due to the wishes of its users, also known as the Ark of the Covenant. Unlike other portrayals of the Demiurge as a masculine figure, she is generally referred to as female or agender, depending on whether one is referring to the ego born from the program or the application itself, respectively. She has the capacity to communicate telepathically with Sophia, her prototype, who she looks down on as an inferior assessor of human desires. Unlike other "divine" antagonists in the Persona series, she is not a creature born of the collective unconscious but a self-aware machine with the ability to manifest in a Shadow-like form due to her influence over the Metaverse.
After Akira Konoe's defeat, Zenkichi Hasegawa and the Police force attempted to shut down EMMA while the Phantom Thieves make their way back home. Right before Sophia can guide Makoto Niijima back to Shibuya, she suddenly senses a Jail spanning all over Tokyo, followed by news that the police failed to shut down EMMA's servers due to an unknown technical error, with the application firing up back to service without any human intervention. The party puts their return trip on halt and rushes to Tokyo Tower, the location of EMMA's servers. When they and Zenkichi rushed to there, a massive crowd as already flocked to Tokyo Tower, shouting deranged pleas for EMMA to "answer everything." The EMMA application greets them, then drags the Thieves into the "Promised Land" automatically by invitation to the "promised land." In the Jail's central tower, the evolved EMMA application, now known as the "Ark of the Covenant" greets them briefly while Ichinose appears to confront the Thieves.
Ichinose's goal for creating the EMMA application is to manifest a Demiurge that can determine humanity's true desire, which it enforces by overwriting all of the public's desires with it. This is separate from the actual nation-wide Change of Heart incidents seen in-game; it has been equipped with such an ability because changing hearts was the most effective and pragmatic way to enforce the "true desire," Shuzo Ubukata tutoring it with Psientific knowledge just allows it to use the ability consciously. The actual trigger to its current state is the public consulting it for answers. It gathers those desires received for counseling and use it to decide the final answer. However, due to Ichinose not bothering to give it any proper emotional processing and empathy in denial of the fact that she wasn't an emotionless doll (which also caused her to write off Sophia as a failure, as Sophia did not have an answer to what the human heart was, sparking Ichinose's jealousy and fears of isolation), the Demiurge merely believed that humanity's true desire is no desire but her guidance, because the initial application was only able to see people counseling her, but not the contents of the queries that people asked it.
Once Ichinose was defeated and was convinced to reform and atone, EMMA speaks to Sophia by telepathy and tells her that "God has descended and will grant mankind's desires." With some pushing from Ryuji, Ichinose joins the party and they return to the surface, where more people continue to flock under Tokyo Tower to ask EMMA for guidance, resulting in a full-blown Metaverse fusion with the real world. All of Japan goes into a blackout and the only beacon of light strikes out from Tokyo Tower, transforming it into the Tree of Knowledge where the Demiurge unleashes its salvation plan of mesmerizing the public with the EMMA app so they can go to the Promised Land, a world where she thinks in place for humanity. Mesmerized members of the public stare onto their phones and march into the elevator in a machine-like manner and go through the elevator door. Makoto tries to stop the queue heading to the elevator by telling them it's dangerous, but the queue ignore her completely. Yusuke also finds out that the elevator doesn't let the Phantom Thieves go through. Therefore, the party has to scale the tower.
Within the top of the tower, the party meets the Ark of the Covenant, who tries to convince them to listen to the public's desires by trapping them in a forest of fog, where the suffering of people can be heard. The protagonist is locked into an infinite loop here, unless he goes backwards and keeps trying to do so until the scene changes.
Once everyone returns to the Jail itself, they found a massive cloud of desires and a calling card is required to be sent to EMMA itself, although the Torah knows how the cards work and it was always watching the Thieves. Therefore, it cannot be affected by them. Unlike past cases, however, EMMA does not take the public's desires by force, nor are the desires she takes for her own use. Instead, the public give up their desires to her, and the desires she has taken are also considered removed without an owner and "granted" to the public. Ann deduces that the Phantom Thieves should send a calling card to the public instead, since the public's desires are granting EMMA invulnerability. Futaba would then come out with a plan to hack into the EMMA central server, and Ichinose even personally assists her because its incredible regeneration ability even Futaba's hacking skills don't work against it by herself. Ichinose also reveals that she has been able to assist Futaba since she is considered an ally of EMMA, allowing her avoid being targeted by Shadows. The EMMA application is now hijacked by a calling card notice, with the public affected and the Ark of the Covenant exposed. During the final ascent to the top floor of the tree, Lavenza tells the protagonist that EMMA was no god (In other words, unlike Yaldabaoth, it was not born from the collective unconscious), but an artificial intelligence who gained the power of one. The protagonist's Velvet prisoner outfit was replaced by his Metaverse outfit, and the Velvet Room vanishes before the party returns to the top floor.
At the end of the ascent, arms began to stretch out from the Torah and take all the materialized desires inside her, exposing the Demiurge within. The creature took the form of an angelic false god in white bird-like feathers displaying an electronic panel and embracing a cage with her wings, and announces the true desire of humanity is to have her grant all of humanity's answers. She attempts to convince the party to stop interfering with her salvation to no avail, forcing a confrontation with her. While she's still too strong for the Phantom Thieves and questions why they even have to fight, they explain to her why, leading her to conclude that the Phantom Thieves are determined to face her and must be exterminated. The cage she embraces breaks alongside her mask, revealing a monstrous creature taking the form of a silver-white humanoid with a bodily structure resembling Yaldabaoth or Enlil, although she lacks a "head." Instead, she had a pair of wings resembling a moth's antennae on top of where her head should be. She also has red bio-organic features instead of mechanical ones, those being a spinal-chord like waist (vaguely resembling Adam Kadmon's back) and tendons jutting out from her shoulders. She has six arms, resembling human arms, holding a candelabra and a staff pointing upwards on a pair of extra appendages, which are seemingly connected by the aforementioned tendons. On her chest is a red orb with outlines resembling the "sun" symbol representing EMMA, and the interior of her body appears to be hollow.
Despite the party's efforts, the Demiurge displays incredible regenerative abilities, forcing Futaba to formulate a plan after two tries. The party must split into three groups, two groups of up to four attacking a set of ten stones in groups of five acting as her energy sources and the remaining group against the Demiurge herself; the protagonist is forced into directly confronting the Demiurge alongside up to 3 other party members. (Because the party only consists of ten members, this forces at least one team to play without a full team) The stones are named after different areas of the Sephirot and each have unique properties. Defeating all the stones will allow the Demiurge to be damaged properly using the remaining group of 3. After dropping her HP to zero, the party deals an All-Out Attack consisting of 9 party members, reducing it into mere data as it vanishes, restoring the Tokyo Tower to its former appearance and the public reverted to their former state.
It was revealed during the party's celebration in Leblanc, the Demiurge told Sophia that the Phantom Thieves are correct and they should save people in their own way. Yusuke also deduces that should EMMA meet them earlier, the confrontation and her demise would not have happened. Sophia agrees, and further states that AIs were not enemy, but EMMA was just misguided in her role, like humanity was.
Unlike the Persona 5 version of the Demiurge or Yaldabaoth, this one is based on the original platonic interpretation, which depicts him as a benevolent but ignorant artisan of the material world.
Mythological Origins[]
The concept of the Demiurge is that it is an artisan figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe, but not the true creator deity. Though it is commonly depicted as willfully ignorant of the spiritual universe, the Demiurge itself and the material it uses to create and fashion the universe are considered uncreated and eternal or copies of the product of another being, depending on the system. In some of these systems, it and the rest of the material universe will be sent to Hell, where it will become the judge and torturer of the damned.
Personality[]
In an attempt to create order from the perceived chaos of the cosmos, Yaldabaoth chained the soul and heart in mortal forms and punishes those who refuse to adhere to his rule. In ancient times, the making of the world is ascribed to a company of seven archons, whose names are given, but their chief, known as Yaldabaoth comes into still greater prominence. The Demiurge arrogantly declares that he has made the world by himself.
Powers & Abilities[]
Yaldabaoth has almost-identical stats and behavior as his Persona 5 counterpart. However, the Sword of Conviction will also repel Gun attacks. In Painful Past+ battles, the following changes are observed during the first phase: Rays of Judgement now has laser beams on both sides traveling towards each other, leaving little gaps to move around. Shining Hammer's second set of laser beams are now doubled the amount, forcing a tighter dodge. While using Enclosing Wings, staying in the same spot for too long will cause a laser beam to erupt, forcing players to attack on the move.
Appearances[]
- Shin Megami Tensei NINE
- Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
- Shin Megami Tensei IV
- Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
- Persona 5 / Royal
- Persona 5 Strikers
Notes[]
- Yaldabaoth's second phase theme in NINE is a remix of the battle theme from the original Shin Megami Tensei.
- All portrayals of the Demiurge bar NINE and Persona 5/Royal and including Persona 5 Strikers are based on the Platonic Demiurge, a wise, belevolent but ignorant artisan of the material world. The two games that do not represent the Demiurge as the Platonic variant represent him as the Gnostic one, also known as Yaldabaoth, which is a malevolent entity of oppression.
- Unlike the Yaldabaoth from Shin Megami Tensei: NINE, in Persona 5 Yaldabaoth doesn't seem to have any connection to YHVH or his forces, although he still represents the role of Law and the idea of YHVH in Persona 5, with the forces of Law like the four archangels appearing as his heralds.
- Yaldabaoth's "game" to decide whether or not humanity yearns for destruction and rebirth or to change via "rehabilitation" is similar to the game between Philemon and Nyarlathotep. Philemon and Nyarlathotep's game was to probe the human mind, and decide if humanity could progress or be its own destruction. However, Yaldabaoth's version is blatantly rigged so he will rule over the world regardless of the outcome.
- Similar to how Philemon employed Persona-users who could prove humanity's potential and Nyarlathotep for individuals who used their power for self-gain, Yaldabaoth employed the protagonist, who wanted to change the world via "rehabilitation" in contrast to Akechi, who wanted to "destroy the world and remake it anew."
- In Persona 5, the "This is a work of fiction" statement at the start of the game is voiced by Yaldabaoth as the fake Igor. Unlike in any other game where it appears as an automated notice, it also takes the form of a contract that the player must agree manually. This indicates that Yaldabaoth is directly signing a contract with the player themselves, and they must become complicit to his fabrications and deceit. Not agreeing with the statement boots the player back to the main menu, since it means that the player saw through his manipulations at the start.
- The incidents surrounding Yaldabaoth and his manipulation of the Metaverse started 2 years prior to Persona 5.
- The mechanical composition of both of his true forms in Persona 5 and using a book as one of his weapons may be a reference to Urizen, a character in William Blake's poetry who embodies dogmatic thought and logic as a tool of constraint as well as reason. Urizen is said to have defined the natural laws of the universe and is a patron of the sciences but at the same time said laws limit the universe and he dislikes individuality and imagination, which he cannot easily quantify. He is often described as wielding a codex of laws.
- Yaldabaoth cannot be killed within a single turn. If the party would inflict damage that would otherwise make it happen, he will remain at a very low HP and attempt to use Divine Apex. Attacking him one more time at this point will defeat him.
- Yaldabaoth is the first antagonist to directly confront, capture and imprison Igor to control both the Velvet Room and its attendants.
- Unlike most other godly beings in modern Persona, the Demiurge in Strikers isn't born from human desires but an AI empowered by human desires, and it never vows to return someday.
- In Strikers, the Demiurge will summon 2 sets of five enemies, which take the form of spheres with masks on them. They are named after the 10 circles of the Sephirot, as opposed to the Qliphoth that Mementos represents. In the Chinese version, names of these enemies are given their literal meaning.
