Plan A Failed, So We Let the Machines Dream: Emil, Accord, and the Secret Plan B of Humanity
Introduction:
There’s something deeply human about creating backup plans—especially when we know our first ones are doomed to fail. In *Nier Replicant*, humanity placed all its hopes in Project Gestalt, a desperate effort to preserve the species. That was Plan A: separating soul from body, preserving identities in digital form while waiting for a cure. But as we know, it didn’t work. The Replicant of Nier, unknowingly, destroyed Shadowlord—the very vessel meant to carry his original soul—and with that, Plan A collapsed.
That’s where Plan B begins.
If you remember the Forest of Myth before Shadowlord’s fall, it felt like a foggy, surreal dream. But after his death, something changed. Wires and metallic pipes emerged from the trees, revealing the forest’s true form: a supercomputer, a relic of the old world. A forgotten AI, now infected by *the Flower*. The virus had slipped into the network. And someone—or something—activated the second protocol.
Machines were created. YoRHa was born. But it was all a script, a simulation. The alien invasion? The humans hiding on the Moon? All lies. Both machines and YoRHa were pitted against each other in a grand experiment: to simulate war, observe behavior, and gather emotional and cognitive data that might one day allow humanity to be reborn—not just in flesh, but in memory, in identity.
And who orchestrated this? The answer lies behind the moon itself.
Emil. The same Emil we met long ago. In *Nier: Automata*, he tells us there are thousands of him—clones spawned from one broken but undying soul. According to Yoko Taro, Emil and the original Accord (from *Drakengard 3*) still exist in the “underworld” of the Nier universe. Watching. Recording. Guiding. They're not androids. They're older. They're different.
And maybe—just maybe—they're the real architects of salvation.
Plan B: The Secret Machine War That Was Never Meant to Save Us
Even during the era of *Nier Replicant*, the machines—and the mysterious Network that controlled them—already existed. Humanity, desperate and broken, placed its last hopes in two paths: Plan A and Plan B.
Plan A was the Gestalt Project, an ambitious attempt to preserve human souls in digital form while their Replicant bodies roamed the Earth. The hope was that one day, soul and body would reunite. But things didn’t go as planned. The Replicant version of Nier—unaware of the consequences—killed the Shadowlord, effectively destroying humanity’s best chance at restoration.
With Plan A in ruins, Plan B had to be activated.
If you recall, before the Shadowlord's fall, the Forest of Myth looked like a foggy, dreamlike place. But after his death—specifically in the section of the game where you play as Kaine—it transformed. The illusion faded, revealing industrial wires and pipes sprawled across the land. What had appeared to be a mystical forest was actually hiding a supercomputer—possibly one of the first steps in Plan B’s initiation.
The *Flower* had already begun infecting the network.
Now, the goal had shifted. Machines were created. The YoRHa androids were developed. A false narrative was constructed—about alien invaders, humanity taking refuge on the Moon, and a war between YoRHa and machine lifeforms. All of it was orchestrated to gather data—behavioral records, emotional responses, battle instincts. Every piece of information YoRHa collected was secretly uploaded to the Network. Unbeknownst to them, their creators and their enemies were one and the same.
The plan was simple: let YoRHa and the machines wage endless war until enough data was harvested to reconstruct humanity—not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. And once that data was complete, YoRHa would be discarded.
But the Flower was still there. A corruption in the system. A seed of chaos. Whenever machines came under its influence—through the Red Eye syndrome or other means—they turned against even their own kind. The virus made sure no plan—A or B—would succeed.
It wasn’t just about rebuilding humanity anymore. It was about surviving the very things we created.
The Moon Behind the Curtain: Emil, the Hidden Architect of the Nier Universe
At some point, you might find yourself asking: *Who was truly pulling the strings?*
Who orchestrated the layered plans, the conflicts, the cycles of death and rebirth in the Nier universe?
The answer, surprisingly, can be summed up in a single name: Emil.
He's one of the most mysterious figures in the entire series—often represented by the image of a grinning moon. But behind that eerie smile lies something far more complex. In a side quest from *Nier Automata*, Emil himself admits that there are thousands upon thousands of him, all replicated from a single original version.
Why? Because long ago, the *original Emil* began duplicating himself, possibly in a desperate effort to fulfill a forgotten mission—or to prepare for something much bigger.
Yoko Taro, the enigmatic creator behind the series, has confirmed that the true Emil and the original Accord—another cryptic figure from *Drakengard 3*—reside somewhere deep beneath the world of *Nier*, hidden from the eyes of those still fighting above. These two, it seems, *know everything*. They've seen the loops, the failures, the corrupted timelines, and the plans that were never meant to succeed.
And here’s where things get even more fascinating.
Yoko Taro also revealed that within the YoRHa system, no android exists above *Commander White* in rank. Yet… some classified YoRHa documents are labeled “SS-level”, above even White. That implies there is someone—or something—superior giving commands from the shadows.
But that entity cannot be an android.
So who—or what—could it be?
The only answer that makes sense is Emil.
He’s not a machine, nor a Replicant. He’s something else entirely. A relic from the distant past. A being shaped by tragedy, memory, and purpose—who just might be the silent architect keeping the remnants of humanity on some sort of path, no matter how twisted.
In the end, the moon watches all.
And perhaps... it remembers everything.
Further Records Available — Ready to Discover?
Even after all that’s been revealed, echoes of forgotten truths still linger.
If you're ready… the next fragments are waiting to be found.
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🎧 Dive Into the Unknown
I’ve recorded a special podcast exploring one of the many deep theories from the world of Nier. While it’s the only episode for now, there’s so much more to discover in the articles below—until the next voice finds its way to you.
