Babel Story Summary - Arknights

There's a final farewell left behind by someone who had already sensed their own death. Deep within one of Kazdel's ships, Kal'tsit was replaying that voice over and over again.

In the year 1094, the Sarkaz nomadic city of Kazdel flew two banners. One was Babel's banner, calling to tear down the walls between races. The other was the Military Council's banner, calling to reclaim what had been lost.

And caught between the two was someone who had slept for ten thousand years before waking. Everyone believed he was a savior who brought victory with him — but what he truly wanted to save may not have been this world at all.

1. In a City of Demons, an Idealist Is Born

Kazdel is the nomadic city the Sarkaz have hauled along for over a hundred years. Beneath the glow of the Soul Furnace, its people lived carrying war and discrimination like an inescapable fate.

The ones who built Kazdel into what it is today were the seamstress Theresa and the swordswoman Theresis — half-blood twins raised together since childhood. People revere Theresa as one of the legendary 'Six Heroes,' but she's never much cared for the title.

Theresa founds 'Babel,' an organization meant to transcend the boundaries of race and nation. The name is grand, but the goal is simple: care for Kazdel's sick, and teach its children.

Of course, not everyone welcomed it. 'Scar Eye', the one-eyed giant who runs the underground market known as the Scar Market, believed war itself was his real bread and butter.

Since when have the Sarkaz ever lived apart from war!
— 'Scar Eye'

On top of that, Scar Eye has an unusual gift — an Arts that lets him glimpse fragments of the future. Yet he only ever used it to make money, believing all along that he alone could bend his own fate.

A name both foreign and familiar: Kazdel. Called a den of demons, but to the Sarkaz, it's a home that stirs up complicated feelings.

2. Waking a Guest Who Slept Ten Thousand Years (No Refunds, No Returns)

Babel actually has two true heads: the demon queen Theresa, and the mysterious being at her side, Kal'tsit.

Kal'tsit says there's someone who can solve the Originium problem, and quietly opens a sealed coffin no one else knows about. What wakes inside is a being from a civilization destroyed ten thousand years ago — one who calls himself 'the Doctor.'

Bewildered by this strange world, the Doctor still adapts quickly. Kal'tsit watches him with relief — but a shadow he can't put into words has already fallen across the Doctor's face.

Kal'tsit hides the Doctor's existence from Babel's people for a while, saying there's no need to tell anyone until Theresa and the Doctor have had a chance to size each other up.

For the Doctor's safety, and for the safety of Babel's members, I erased the Doctor's boarding record.
— Kal'tsit

A door opened after ten thousand years of silence. Is what walked out of it a savior, or...?

3. One Child Fallen from a Burdenbeast (Two, Counting the Doctor)

Thanks to Kal'tsit's arrangement, the Doctor spends six months traveling across Terra. Along the way, he meets Amiya, a young Cautus girl who alone survived a cargo caravan accident.

Amiya was a kid who tried to scare off a Sandbeast by mimicking its cry, badly. When the Doctor solves the problem with an actual whistle, Amiya's eyes light up and she insists on trying it herself.

The peace doesn't last. Minutes after climbing onto a Burdenbeast's back, the Doctor ends up face-first in a puddle.

I'm... already holding on... as tight as I can!
— the Doctor

The Burdenbeast dismount incident. The Doctor's dignity died about halfway here.

The Cautus mercenary Savage, who'd been traveling with them, is reluctant to part ways with Amiya, but in the end the Doctor slips away silently in the night — telling himself it's so he won't drag her somewhere even more dangerous.

Amiya wants a promise from him that they'll meet again. Even though she vaguely knows a child with stone growing in her body doesn't have much future left, she says she wants to stay by his side anyway.

Amiya, we'll have a future.
— the Doctor

4. Two Sword Hilts Picked Up in a Storm

Theresis has two disciples: Ascalon, the feral child found in a snowstorm, and Manfred, who came out of the Military Council's foster home.

The two don't dislike each other, exactly — it's more that Ascalon ties Manfred up with rope and strings him up every single time. And yet Manfred keeps coming back for another round.

Theresa was especially gentle with Ascalon. She'd tell her to touch her horns, reassuring her that she too was Sarkaz, no different. Theresa was the one person Ascalon never showed hostility toward.

You don't have to be afraid of me. I have no hostility toward you. See? Go ahead, touch my horns — we're all the same.
— Theresa

But as they grow up, their paths diverge. Ascalon becomes an assassin for Babel; Manfred becomes a minister of the Military Council.

"Your Highness, look, I won again!" Ascalon's victory report and Manfred's humiliation. Both were a regular occurrence.

5. Two Banners, a Fracturing Family

Theresis founds the 'Military Council,' vowing to unify Kazdel as one. It's an attempt to abolish the old monarchies' privileges and bind the Sarkaz together into a single force.

The problem is the price of it. To those who carried Kazdel's old grudges, Babel's coexistence with other races was a thorn in the side, and riots and assassinations follow one after another.

Right in the middle of that whirlwind is Odda, a boy from the back alleys. The name was originally his badly injured mother's, but his father, Fortune, passed it on to his son as he left for revenge — perhaps because he wanted the name to keep being spoken, even if only through his son.

Years later, a grown Odda ends up secretly hiding 'Teacher,' an advocate for other races. But the assassin hired to kill that very Teacher turns out to be none other than his father, Fortune.

Even knowing it's the person his own son is trying to protect, Fortune can't sheathe his blade in the end. And not long after, Fortune himself never comes back either.

These upheavals eventually escalate into disaster when Babel's office takes a direct bombardment. Babel suffers its worst damage since the war eighteen years earlier, and decides to leave Kazdel.

Amid all this, the Banshee queen Rakelamalin entrusts her daughter Aipanil to Theresa. This is how the foreshadowing quietly grows, unnoticed by anyone.

A procession turning its back on home. People wrapped themselves in banners torn from the city walls, etching into memory a city they might never see again.

6. The Doctor's Secret Diary (No More Jokes From Here)

The Doctor keeps a record no one else has ever discovered. In the words he murmurs alone in front of the camera are the name of a civilization lost ten thousand years ago, and the name of someone he once loved.

The Doctor's true goal is for 'Originium' to blanket this world completely. He believes that's the only way the civilization that fell ten thousand years ago can ever continue on.

The harder Theresa works to save people with Originium, the more the Doctor burns up inside. Whether he's truly a savior, or the one strangling this world's last breath — he can't find an answer.

Priestess... what should I do?
— the Doctor

Kal'tsit, meanwhile, only worries that the Doctor's body keeps growing thinner — with no idea he's been injecting Originium into himself as an experiment.

I don't want you wearing yourself out right now, of all times. Take a little better care of yourself.
— Kal'tsit

What truly exhausted the Doctor wasn't his body, but his heart. A promise made long ago with his lost love, Priestess, and the guilt of having to deceive Kal'tsit and Theresa to keep it — that was what was eating away at him.

"Originium must rewrite everything, without fail." A plan only the Doctor knows is slowly coming to light.

7. A Deal Struck Beneath a Rain-Soaked Hero's Statue

The Doctor secretly goes to see Theresis. Beneath the statue of the twins who founded Kazdel, the two of them begin a deal no one else knows about.

The Doctor's condition is simple: bring down Babel, kill Theresa, and he'll end the war right here.

Theresis asks him back: what must be destroyed to build the ladder he wants? The Doctor, knowing full well this is anything but light business, answers that he's already hesitated far too long.

What will you destroy to build your ladder, {@nickname}.
— Theresis

Instead of accepting the offer, Theresis leaves him with one line: if there's anyone toying with the Sarkaz's fate, he'll be the one to pass judgment himself.

If you're worried there's no one to rein in a spirit looking down on everyone else from on high, then I'll be the one to step forward.
— Theresis

A shadow left alone in the rain. The hero's statue was still gazing off into the distance, as ever.

8. The Countdown, and a Defense Wall Erased by His Own Hand

Around this time, Ascalon settles an old debt. Scar Eye, the boss of the Scar Market who'd made a living peddling the scent of betrayal, ends up losing his life at the hands of his own underlings. Ascalon comes and finishes him off with the last blow.

Meanwhile, Babel finally launches its operation to retake Kazdel — a once-in-a-lifetime chance, timed to strike while Theresis's main forces are away in Victoria's Londinium.

Under the Doctor's command, the operation runs flawlessly. As the countdown ticks down, Babel's old comrades — Ace, Scout, Mantra, Pith, even Logos — all move in perfect concert, each in their place.

But at the very moment the flagship becomes most defenseless, it's the Doctor himself who disarms its defense systems. While Theresis's assassins silently board the ship, Amiya — knowing nothing — is knocking on Theresa's door, a picture book held to her chest.

9. The Child Who Inherited the Crown

When the assassins burst in, Theresa wraps Amiya in black foam and puts her to sleep, then faces them alone. Even as she cuts them down one by one, she calls each of them by name. Luca, Liens, Levin...

These were assassins who'd erased their own horns and names — but she, at least, would not forget them.

I remember your names.
— Theresa

With her last strength, Theresa transfers her 'Black Crown' to the sleeping Amiya. Then she asks the Doctor, who arrives too late, whether he came to find Amiya — or...

The Doctor can't answer. The assassins pouring in behind him were already the answer.

So this was your answer, Doctor...
— Theresa

A black blade pierces through Amiya. But what that sword left behind wasn't pain — it was warmth.

Even as she dies, Theresa doesn't resent the Doctor. Instead, she erases his memories thread by thread, so he can live again as his whole self.

Find yourself.
— Theresa

Farewell, and a Beginning

With her last breath, Theresa waits for Kal'tsit. Then, borrowing the body of the sleeping Amiya, she leaves one final farewell — just once.

I killed him. And I saved him too.
— Theresa (through Amiya's body)

The crown, she says, is neither a ruler nor a shackle — it's merely a key toward 'the Continuance of Civilization.' She asks that Amiya not be told, not yet.

Kal'tsit decides to send the Doctor outside of Rhodes Island, to Chernobog in Ursus. She doesn't want him — someone who'll wake with no memory — left in danger any longer.

Ascalon, arriving too late, breaks down in front of the empty room. This time, no matter how long she waited, Her Highness never came out to greet her.

Damn it! Damn it! I'll make them pay for this... I promise.
— Ascalon

And the story turns back to 196 years earlier. To the day, atop the ruins where an old demon king had died, when a still-young seamstress and swordswoman first shared the crown between them.

We are equals, forever.
— Theresa · Theresis

A crown raised together atop the ruins. More than a hundred years later, that same crown would pass once more into the hands of an unfamiliar child.

What makes this story especially bittersweet is that we already know the next chapter after this ending. That the Doctor who woke with no memory is the very same person we now call by that name at Rhodes Island.

And Ascalon's revenge, and the crown Amiya now carries — both are stories that still haven't ended. It's just that, by now, very few people left on this world remember what comes after.