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Limiters are molecular machines that Solaris uses to restrict people's innate abilities on a genetic level, as well as instill fear and veneration for the Gazel Ministry and Cain.[1] The Limiters' seal is maintained through the consumption of food and medicine produced by the Soylent System.
Even Solaris citizens have them installed at birth, with the exceptions being people in key positions like Citan and Ramsus, who had theirs removed with the Ministry's permission.[2] Elly is another notable exception due to no Limiter ever being implanted in her, which surprised Citan.[3]
Limiters are also used to restrain the Dotesque Chu-Chupolin's size, leaving them at their smaller size instead of the same size as Gears. Some, such as Chu-Chu, had their Limiters removed by Shevat's wisemen.[4] In Chu-Chu's case, she gains the ability to transform into a larger size, which she uses to fight alongside her party members in Gear battles.
History[]
In 9698, after the Day of Collapse and the destruction of Solaris, the surviving upper tiers of Solaris needed to collect resources and labor from the surface for rebuilding their nation. However, with the memory of the Shevat-Solaris War still fresh in surface-dwellers' minds, Solaris was afraid of sparking another war.[5][6]
To protect against this, Solaris used the talents of a newly exiled Karellen, who used nanotechnology to create Limiters, which were dispersed into the surface dweller population. With this, the memory of the Great War was suppressed, along with people's inherent abilities. In addition, it was now easier for Emperor Cain and the Gazel Ministry to control the populace on a subconscious level.[6][1]
The other effect was that the memory of Gears, as well as how to use them, disappeared. It wasn't until around 9979, when Solaris reintroduced Gears to Kislev and Aveh to reignite the Ignas War, that they were used in combat again.[7]
Xenogears[]
When Chu-Chu faces up against Nikolai, Nikolai is surprised that she was able to transform, and comments that she must have had her Limiter removed. Before the party departs Shevat to go to Solaris, Gaspar removes a part of their Limiters.
The psychological portion of the Limiters was removed by Citan when he 'double-crossed' the party in Solaris, allowing him access to the facilities needed. Citan warns Bart that the physical Limiters had already been removed, so Bart did not automatically become more powerful, much to Bart's disappointment.
In order to remove the Limiters from the entire population, the party uses the Mass-driver facility in one of the Zeboim ruins to launch a capsule containing the nanomachines into the atmosphere. However, just before this, Karellen dispersed a nanomachine virus of his own into the atmosphere after the explosion in Etrenank, causing many humans to begin mutating into Wels.
Trivia[]
- Balthasar uses a Limiter in Weltall-2 to keep Fei from turning into Id when using its more extensive abilities, though it was still possible when it was overloaded. Balthasar installed nanomachines in Fei and Weltall-2 to further deter this.[8]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 CITAN: "The part I have removed is the psychological section. That is... the subconscious fear and veneration for the Ministry and the Emperor have been removed. Basically, you will be able to battle against them without any fears or hesitations."
- ↑ CITAN: "Even Solaris citizens have a Limiter implanted when they are born. There are exceptions for certain people like myself and Ramsus, whose Limiters can be removed later on through the treatment such as the one I did for Bart. But you must have permission from the Ministry to do so."
- ↑ CITAN: "But one thing bothers me... When Krelian took Elly, I had a chance to acquire Elly's cellular information. I analyzed it and found something very interesting... Excuse me, I mean... unusual. There is no Limiter implanted in her."
- ↑ NIKOLAI: "I see... you're a giant native lifeform of this planet... You're not... a young rankar. Species name, dotesqueChu-Chupolin (intellect, astronomically low)! They still haven't gone extinct yet? But, through genetic engineering, they're supposed to have been minimized in size... Probably one of the survivors that had their Limiters removed by the wisemen from Shevat."
- ↑ Perfect Works, pg 16.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Perfect Works, pg 26.
- ↑ Perfect Works, pg 37.
- ↑ Perfect Works, pg 82. Editor's note: I could be off in my summary here.