Toa

Toa is the name of an ancient civilization and of the mysterious entity at its center. Vordin says the word refers to “the entirety of this land” and to the prime culprit behind everything.

The Toans

More than 1,100 years ago, a higher human race called the Toans ruled the north of Edthea from a great capital. It was divided into three strata: the celestial stratum and the upper stratum belonged to the Toans, while every other race lived in the vast lower stratum as laborers. The Toans were emotionless and lacked imagination. A barrier protected the capital from devil beasts, and at its top stood a pyramid called the Audience Chamber, surrounded by a sea of clouds, where heroes could hear the voice of Toa. Below the lower stratum lay Toa’s Fountainhead, the holy site of the fourth passage.

The heroes

Toa invaded the lands of the devil beasts, and the Devil Beast Kings pushed back. Unsuited to fighting, Toa summoned heroes from another world into prepared bodies that resurrected after death, promising to send them home if they defeated the Kings. The heroes’ spilt blood turned into magical ore. The hero Wright wrote the Legend of the Hero to guide them, but used it to have the heroes massacre the Toans and then end their own resurrection. Vordin’s invasion finished the capital, which sank into the sea.

Toa the Eternal

Although the Toans died out, the domain of Toa remained active, hidden beneath the seafloor. Zavthier says the wall beyond the Kings’ territories exists to contain it. At the end of the Solsein arc, Wright’s preserved body woke possessed by Toa, which raised the old capital as an island north of Solsein, killed Vordin and vanished again, saying that it was “not yet the right time”. Zavthier warned that Toa had once enslaved the ancestors of today’s humans.