Xenosaga

(Editor’s note: this game was a large part of the inspiration for the original crosstype theory.)

Xenosaga offers a thoughtful premise: that there exists deep within the human subconscious a sort of natural arrow or way forward, and that those who are keen to this arrow are the true masters of human reality. This is the substance of Wilhelm, the enigmatic manipulator of events in Xenosaga, and the impulse for his drive to control literally everything around him. That such a person could be conceived of and realistically presented was for me a compelling case for the phenomena observed by crosstype theory. (and later, supersocion theory)

Xenosaga was quite a story. It even threw Jesus into the mix. (the character chaos, fans agree, is the gnostic conceptualization of Jesus.) That chaos is Jesus implies that Wilhelm, his “brother” in cosmic duty, is Lucifer. However, Lucifer is by any measure a psychopath as portrayed in the Old Testament and held as such by Jesus, which calls the comparison into question. The easiest way to make sense of the mess is to conceive of Wilhelm as indeed Lucifer, but carrying with him Jesus’ bias and self-projections. Lucifer is to Jesus the image of his own negative potential, and Jesus, in the context of Xenosaga, sees Wilhelm for something he really isn’t. Wilhelm compares much more favorably with YHWH (pronounced “Yahweh”, means “I AM”) Himself, as the enigmatic comptroller of human history for a greater good that is beyond normal apprehension. He is the Ancient of Days, who prophesizes the Revelation alongside his Testament cherubim as a rubric to play against on his road to success for man and the universe. It is meaningful that he is, in fact, an agent of Order absolute, because the prophet Moses demonstrates firm respect for order and observance of tradition in the Mosaic books — the tradition of Israelite worship for YHWH, consider, is his rationale for freeing is Israelites from the Egyptians — and undoubtably modeled the image of the YHWH after his own subconscious. Therefore all other things considered, Wilhelm is the personification — perhaps even the original substance — of YHWH in the Xenosaga universe. Although UDO is the supreme power as the creator of the XS universe, it cannot be said to have a reign or even a personality because it is ignorant of human nature; Wilhelm compares much more favorably to the Mosaic and Revelation depictions of YHWH.

Role in the formation of dual-type theory

Wilhelm was compelling because of his profound influence and his unusual mannerisms. Elegance surrounded him, he spoke as though he was the perfect Atman, at one with the universe. Linguistic analysis of his socionics function order showed a profound attention to the ways opposites influenced each other. I supposed at the time that this attention was responsible for his power because of the way I had formulated the original crosstype theory. Although the influence was not in fact correlated to the ordering, the ordering does define the form and nature of the innate influence. (possessed as such, in non-fantasy terms, due to his nature as a creative leader, particularly a consensus leader.) Observing the relationship between the elements in Wilhelm’s character was a large part of coming to the conclusion that a seperate energy or “exertion” type existed in the personality.

As for the Compass of Order, it is best thought of as the subconscious aspect of Wilhelm’s dual-type (ISTp-ENFp) with creative leader awareness. (the path of successful relationship between dual functions and therefore, the innate human providence.) Indeed, it is probably feasible to create a real version of just such a device, in as much as one could simulate the IM elements successfully.

(before you get all excited, remember that ISTp-ENFp creative leaders do exist (compare Wilhelm with Tilda Swinton and especially, her Wilhelm-like roles) and that creative leaders come in many types and nobody, therefore, has a monopoly on the “way forward” for humanity. There are instances where such a prognosticator of proper action course would be useful however, especially in computational science.)