Joah - Mysterious Man

I attempted a translation of Joah's memos a short while ago, I guess I should probably post them here! They are quite interesting, and are some of the only information about Joah we have.
I'm still learning Japanese, so if anyone has a correction, please say so!

とても気持ちのいい目覚めだ。
どのくらい眠っていたのだろうか。
とにかく、すぐにはじめなければならない。
I awakened feeling very good. I wonder how long I was asleep. In any case, I must immediately begin.
わたしは記録する。
記録できる変化がここにはあるのだ。
それはなんと素晴らしいことか。
I will record. There is a recordable change here. This is what sort of wonderful thing?
かつて人類が恐れた１つの細胞も
永遠の時を生ける事を約束されていた。
人類に敗れたその時、何を思ったのだろう。
我々は自ら１つの黄金の鍵を投げ捨てたのだ。
Once, humanity feared a single cell as well was promised to live eternally.
Humanity was unsuccessful at that time; I wonder what did they think. We would personally throw away the one golden key.

ゼータの道を進むうちに、マッチ箱に小さな一つの穴をみつけた。
必死に目を凝らして覗いてみると箱の外の世界を一瞬垣間見た。
まだ見ぬ複雑で巨大な世界。
そこに我々の答えがある。
Within the road to Zeta, a single small hole has been found in the matchbox. Frantically, my eyes caught a peek and momentarily had a glimpse into the world outside of the box. The yet unseen complex, huge world. Our answer is there.
人は死を恐れた。
つまりは変化を恐れた。
そしてついに変化自体忘れてしまった。
そこにはもう何も残っていないのに。
People feared death. In other words, they were afraid of change. And finally, they completely forgot change itself. Even though there, there was nothing left.
自然は常に警告していた。
かつて繁栄を極めたある種族は自らそれを真摯に受け入れた。
しかし傲慢な人間は警告に立ち向かってしまった。
Nature was always warning. Once, extremely prosperous races/species themselves sincerely accepted this. However, arrogant man opposed this warning.
確かに存在する――。
それは我々が夢見る未知の喜び。
我々は存在という喜びを今確かにしなければいけないのだ。
Certainly exist--. This is the unknown joy we dreamed of. We must now certainly do this joy called existence.
わたしは理解してしまった。
人類が誕生した時は未知なる無限な空間だったこの箱も
今となってはマッチ箱よりも窮屈になってしまったことを。
たとえそれが人類の夢だったとしても。
I understand. At the time of humanity’s birth, the infinite space that became unknown, this box as well now has become more narrow than a matchbox. Even if this was humanity’s dream.
袋小路に迷いこんでしまったのだ。
巨大な迷宮は我々をたやすく受け入れてくれなかったのだ。
この事に気づくのにどれくらいかかったのだろう。
いや、遠い昔に気づいていたのかもしれない。

We were lost at a dead end. The great maze wouldn’t easily accept us. When did I realize that? No, I had probably already realized it, long ago.
※手記4と類似　（similar to note 4)
歴史は教えてくれた。多くの人間は既に両の目を奪われていた。
過去、わたしと同じ光景に辿りついた者は大勢いた。
袋小路に向かう大多数に異端として抹殺されただけなのだ。
人々は彼らをただ憎み、否定し、先を急いだ。
History has taught. Many people already had both eyes snatched away. In the past, many people have struggled for the same sight as I. The great majority facing the dead end just denied it as heresy. People just hate them, deny, hastened.
海辺の石は、削られて皆画一的に丸くなる。
数々の争いは引いては寄せる波のようなものだったのだ。
人はそうやって丸石のようにお互い相似する事を望んだ。
Stones on the beach are able to be scraped and all become uniformly rounded. Draws many disputes, it was like an approaching wave. People seemingly like a cobble, wanted mutual similarity.
罪は神というものを生んだ。
神は崇拝と新たな罪を生んだ。
そして多くの神は我々の行く手をさえぎった。

Sin gave birth to that called God. God is worshipped, and gave birth to new sin. Thus, many gods obstructed our path.
※手記8と同文　（same as note 8 )
おそらくこれが最後になるであろう。
我々を導いてくれる天使。
ルエリシアと名付けよう。


Probably, this will be the last. The angel that will guide us. Will name L’erisia.

※手記13と類似（similar to note 13)

Joah note 13:

まばゆい光がみえる…
我々が一度は知ったが、疾の昔に忘れてしまった懐かしい光…
人類は大きな誤算をしてしまったのだ。
我々の歴史はなんて愚かであったのだろう…。
Dazzling light can be seen…we for a moment knew but a long time ago forgot desired light…humanity made a huge miscalculation. Why was our history foolish….
これが最後の記録となるだろう。
さあ共に行こう、我が天使よ。
我々が知らねばならない真実の道へ…。

This will probably be the last record. Come; let’s go together, my angel. To the road to the truth we have to know.

It seems like he is talking about immortality at some parts, immortality is also mentioned by other people from Earth... and it's interesting that he is talking about Zeta, and a "Golden Key" which of course is mentioned in Lien's chapter as well~ I wonder if he is trying to obtain immortality, though I wonder what that has to do with a ship traveling to Aria Te'Laria, and creating L'erisia, and what this "truth" is... oh Joah, we still know so little about you!

Wow, these are interesting and confusing. Joah is really a conundrum!
Zeta, golden key and appearances tie him to Lien, I gravitate to them not being
the same person but it is all very vague. Thank you for these!

Gaaaah!! Why can we not have more info into Joah!? I believe that if we could just have some of our questions about him answered, it would help us to understand the entire story better.

Personally, I don't see Joah as being Lien. I dunno, that thought process just does not click in my brain...Connected; yes. Though I just don't understand them being the same. ^^;

Sigma wrote:

Wow, these are interesting and confusing. Joah is really a conundrum!
Zeta, golden key and appearances tie him to Lien, I gravitate to them not being
the same person but it is all very vague. Thank you for these!

THIS ^
I mean, it's been stated the Zeta was a hidden path. I really wonder if Joah is NOT Lien how can he know about Zeta.

In general, Joah's memos are very confusing. I bet that when Zektbach will release more information about Joah we will understand more things about Zektbach.

Well I did my translation attempt on the guidebook part about Joah! It's page 96 and the top of 97 ( the rest of 97 is just his memos) but yeah finally some answers!! As always, I'm not fluent in Japanese, so feel free to correct me at any spot!

ヨアとは一体何者なのか？
リアンに酷似した姿（※１）で、ルエリシアに関係する映像（※２）において度々姿を
現してきたヨア。その手記ではルエリシアを生み出したかのような記述が見られる。謎に包まれた彼の正体を知ることこそがこの世界の構造に迫ることであり、ゼクトバッハ叙事詩の核心に位置する存在のひとつである。
実はヨアはAD世界の住人であり、かつては人類のひとりとしてミームを排除した（※３）。しかし永遠の虚しさの中で彼の心に変化が生じ、ついには世界にミームを解き放ってしまう。

Who exactly is Joah?

Joah, whose appearance resembles Lien, (※1) and who often showed up connected to L’erisia in the videos (※2). In the description in those memos it can be seen that he seemingly created L’erisia. Knowing his mystery-shrouded true identity is for sure something that compels this world’s structure, he is one of the existences at the heart of the Epic of Zektbach.
As a matter of fact, Joah is an inhabitant of the AD world, he once was one of humanity that eliminated meme (※3). However, in eternal emptiness, he had a change of heart, and at last released meme into the world.

TOMOSUKE氏による解説
もともとは人類です。旧世代の人類は避けられない滅亡を前に自らを宇宙船の中で
データベース化して永遠に存在するという道を見出しましたが、ヨアはその中で虚しさを
覚えてしまいます。全人類の意志は「滅亡をしないためには永遠に同じことを繰り返せばいい」という形で統一されたはずなのに、ヨアはたったひとり「人類は滅亡と進化を繰り返してでも前に進むべきだ」という思考を持ってしまうんですね。人間はもはや肉体を失ってプログラムのような存在になっていたわけですが、ヨアは自分の中に刻まれたソースに納得できないバグのような存在。彼は宇宙船全体に影響を及ぼしつつ、ルエリシアを復活させ、再び永遠の概念を崩すことになります……。自分が死に向かうとしても、それはそれで素晴らしいことだというのが彼の考え方でした。
ここで問題となってくるのが、ヨアがルエリシアを復元させたのが先か、それとも潜伏していたルエリシアがヨアというデータを改ざんして復元させたのかということ。いずれにしても、その結果、宇宙船は落下――というとちょっとわかりづらいかもしれませんが、世界は書き換えられてリスタート。そして、宇宙船は空船の遺跡という形で世界各地に残ることに
なりました（※４）。
ヨアの手記についてはルエリシアの生い立ちについてヨアが記したものであり
「ルエリシア＝ミーム」を示唆しています。



Commentary from TOMOSUKE

It’s humanity by nature. Before unavoidable ruin, the previous age’s humans naturally discovered a way to change into a database on a spaceship and exist eternally, however, in there Joah comes to know emptiness. All of humanity’s will “in order to avoid destruction, should repeat the same thing eternally”, in that form they should have unified, but despite this Joah alone had the thought that “humanity should repeat destruction and evolution, even move forward.” (?) Humans should have already lost their bodies, and became an existence like a program however Joah, in the source carved in himself was an existence like a bug that could not assent.(?) Affecting the entire spaceship, he revives L’erisia, and again succeeds to destroy the concept of eternity……. It was his way of thinking that even if he himself must face death, if that was the case, it would be a wonderful thing.
What became a problem here is Joah restored L’erisia to earlier (?), or perhaps the dormant L’erisia altered the data of Joah and revived. In any case, as a result, the spaceship fell- certainly it might be a little hard to understand however, the world was rewritten and restarts. Thus, the spaceship, in the form of the ruins of the flying ship, was left all over the world (※4).
About Joah’s memos, they are what Joah wrote down concerning the development of L’erisia, they imply that “L’erisia=meme”.


▲ヨアは数列が浮かぶ閉鎖的な世界の中にいるルエリシアが外に出るための道筋を作った。
ヨアが例外という形にはなっているが、結局人類はミームの存在を排除しきれなかったといえる。

▲Joah made a path to the outside for L’erisia in the closed world of floating sequences. Joah had become an exception, and in the end it could be said that it was impossible for humanity to eliminate the existence of meme.

※１
リアンとヨアは同一人物ではなく、あくまで別人。しかし超越者として世界をメタ視点で把握しているという共通点がある。

1: Lien and Joah are not the same person, they are different people to the very end. However they have in common that as transcendental beings they understand the world from a Meta point of view.

※２
各楽曲のムービーより。ルエリシア同様に天使のような羽を生やしている姿もあれば、不鮮明にノイズ混じりの姿で表されることも。

2: From each song’s movie. If L’erisia in the same way also had a form that grew wings like an angel, then it was also represented in the form of a blurred noise mix. (?)

※３
全人類が宇宙空間で時を刻まず、混沌も生まない永遠の存在となるウロボロス計画。ヨアは　その一つのデータ「CODE　Y-O-A-H（ヨア）」。

3: All of humanity, in outer space, with time not ticking away, Project Ouroboros amounted to an eternal existence that also does not give birth to chaos. Joah is one of this data “CODE Y-O-A-H (Joah)”.

※４
永遠を保っていた人類の世界はリセットされ、再びリスタチアに支配されて時を刻む世界が　始まるということ。

4: The world of humanity kept in eternity is reset, and once again the world where time ticks by ruled by the Ristaccia begins.

ヨアの手記全文

ゼクトバッハ叙事詩の中で断片的に記されてきたヨアの手記。叙事詩の各章にちりばめられてきたが、ここではその全文を掲載する。そこにはヨアが永遠の中で感じていた寂寞感が
記されている。彼は自身が異端であることを理解し、その上でルエリシアを天使と形容した。

Full Text of Joah’s Memos

Joah’s memos that have been written down in fragments in the Epic of Zektbach. They have been inlaid in each chapter of the epic however here they appear in their entirety. There, the desolation Joah felt in eternity is written down. He understands it is heresy, in addition described L’erisia as an angel.

Oh my goodness, thanks Ido for translating that whole thing for us. Now we know that Joah doesn't equal Lien but they can see the Meta point of view. (What does that even mean?!) While we all got some answers from this, it still sprouts more questions.