How does Mint's barrier work exactly? If it keeps mana from being drained from the tree, how are the Spirits supplied with the mana they need to live? If I recall correctly the characters are also pretty matter of fact about the barrier making magic disappear at some unspecified time in the future....aren't the elves going to be a bit pissed about that?
Unless it's in a chunk I missed from the script dump, the PS1 version doesn't say anything about magic when they're talking about the barrier. Which version are you going off of?
ミント「これから、ユグドラシルに、マナ流出を防ぐバリアーを張ります」
Mint: From now on, this barrier will be affixed to Yggdrasil to protect it from mana discharge.
ミント「そうすれば、いつかきっと、大いなる実りが生まれてくるはずです」
Mint: Then, in time, it will surely produce a Great Seed.
クラース「信念を持って、孤独な戦いを続けたダオスへの・・・」
Klarth: (I have trouble putting this into words, but it doesn't have anything to do with magic)
クラース「せめてもの、たむけだ・・・」
Klarth: That's something, at least... (uncertain)
クラース「ミント、やってくれ！」
Klarth: Do it, Mint!
ミント「はい！」
Mint: Yes!
http://talesof.cyllya.com/top/script/script020.htmlI don't know how the barrier lets magic and spirits work while preventing the overuse of mana by magitechnology. Maybe it's a quota system. It will only let the mana out so fast.
What is the source of Mint's power? I seem to recall this being addressed very vaguely in the game, but I may be misremembering. The anime claims that it's the Yggdrassil, but that doesn't make any sense.
A book in ToP 4202 talks about healing arts (iyashi no jutsu) as some poorly understood thing and suggests that the power comes from either the Earth or God.
ToS says this of the Boltzmann technique, which is implied in this scene to be a sort of proto-houjutsu.
Colette: What kind of person was Master Boltzman?
Raine: He proposed that people have another power inside of their bodies
in addition to mana.
Lloyd: Another power?
Raine: Yes. The source of healing techniques. He passed away while the
educational system was still being completed, and even today his
theory is only partially understood.
Lloyd: Then, eventually they may figure out the rest.
Raine: Yes. Someday...
Colette: That'd be nice.
It also mentions using the unicorn horn or mana herb as a catalyst for something.
Klarth makes pacts with demons from a parallel dimension that seems antagonistic to their own. This seems like a bad idea for so many reasons but he never gets called out for it, and there don't seem to be any consequences. I've never been able to play ND1 or SL because I can't read Japanese so I was wondering if any consequences of demonic summoning show up in those games.
Who knows. Some book in ToP did mention this being a "forbidden" or "sealed" art, if I remember right. They were already getting into the world, so I don't think Klarth is making the situation any worse by forming a pact with them. He might even be fixing a potential problem by having control over them.
This would be an interesting plot point, but ND1 and SL punch a bunch of plot holes into it by making them into Spirits! Which is weird, because ToP makes it pretty clear they can't be Spirits, just because they're from Makai and the air in Makai is poisonous to Spirits. But in ND1, Pluto is still the ruler of Makai (ruler of a place he can't be *headsmack*) and Gremlin Lair brags about being evil. I didn't get to those two in SL (I think they were sidequests), but I know they're spirits according to gameplay. You can summon other demons in SL, but I don't think that's ever a plot point. (Unless you count Fulein getting a pact with that one zombie, but he wasn't evil.)
Distantly relevant: Sheena says, "only those of elven blood can call forth Summon Spirits. Not just magic, but also any technique that uses the mana of the natural world requires some elven blood to be flowing through you." Since summoning Spirits is mana-related, this would suggest you don't need elven blood to summon non-Spirit things. I figure Klarth uses pact rings to summon without elven blood (Lloyd gets around a similar limit with a pact ring), but then why would he need them for the demons? Hmm.
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