Demiurge

The Demiurge, also known as Yaldabaoth, is a recurring demon in the series.

History
The concept of the Demiurge is that it is an artisan figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe, but not the true creator deity. Though it is commonly depicted as willfully ignorant of the spiritual universe, the Demiurge itself and the material it uses to create and fashion the universe are considered uncreated and eternal or copies of the product of another being, depending on the system. In some of these systems, it and the rest of the material universe will be sent to Hell, where it will become the judge and torturer of the damned. Depending on the system, they may be considered to be either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity.

In the arch-dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good. According to some strains of Gnosticism, the demiurge is malevolent, as it is linked to the material world. In others, the demiurge is simply ignorant or misguided.

He was known by different Gnostic teachings as Samael, Saklas, "Fool" or Yaldabaoth, "Son of Chaos." Gnosticism portrays Yaldabaoth as an inferior "evil" god who created the world who appears as the "God" of the Old Testament. He is said to have been the devil, but most sects consider them to be two completely different entities.

In most schools of Gnosticism, Yaldabaoth (the name for this demiurge), also known as the Leonine Serpent, was created by Sophia, the lowest of the aeons who dwelled in the Divine stone of the Pleroma. She was exiled from the Pleroma for her desire to create something outside of the Divine Totality, but could only form a monstrosity of imperfections, an abortion full of pride and malevolence. When she created the Demiurge, she was ashamed by it; to hide her folly from the Pleroma, she created a great cloud around him and built him a throne. With no awareness of the Pleroma or the Monad, from which all things were derived, the Demiurge concluded it was the creator of all things.

In an attempt to create order from the perceived chaos of the cosmos, Yaldabaoth chained the soul and heart in mortal forms and punishes those who refuse to adhere to his rule. In ancient times, the making of the world is ascribed to a company of seven archons, whose names are given, but their chief, known as Yaldabaoth comes into still greater prominence. The Demiurge arrogantly declares that he has made the world by himself.

It then fashioned the material universe in an unconscious imitation of the Pleroma, and made the first human in the image of the true first man, Adam. Though it could not grant him a soul (having no awareness of the Pleroma) Sophia pitied it and granted him a divine spark that gave him life. The Demiurge was infuriated when Adam thanked the true God for his existence instead of him and sought to ensnare him in the material world through Eve; however, Sophia sent the serpent (sometimes depicted as Satanael or Sophia herself) to tempt Eve, granting her and Adam the secret knowledge of their spiritual nature. The Demiurge expelled them from Eden when he learned of this, and has since sought to keep the souls of mankind bound to the material world.

Some schools of Gnosticism say that one angel had found out that he was a fake and betrayed him, giving humanity the gift of free-will. This fallen angel was known as Satanael who became Yaldabaoth's own opposite and enemy.

Appearances

 * Shin Megami Tensei NINE: Final Boss
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: Vile Race, Ultimate Boss
 * Shin Megami Tensei IV: Vile Race, Optional Boss (Chaos Route)
 * Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse: Vile Race
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Tyrant Race, Boss
 * Persona 5: Final Boss, as The God of Control, Yaldabaoth
 * Persona 5 Royal: Boss (Final boss if requirements of Third Semester are not achieved)
 * Persona 5 The Animation
 * Persona 5 Strikers: Final Boss, as False God Demiurge
 * Shin Megami Tensei Trading Card: Card Summoner: Tyrant Race
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2: Vile Race

Profile
Over the period of Megami Tensei, the Demiurge/Yaldabaoth is almost always placed as the final boss, the ultimate boss or any other extremely powerful enemy while calling themselves as "God" or anything else that imply that they are manifestations of the Great Will. In reality, they are more often than not nothing other than highly powerful Vile/Tyrant Demons, a powerful mass of desires (Persona 5) or even an ascended digital application (Persona 5 Strikers) who believe that they are in such a position.

Shin Megami Tensei: NINE
Known as Yaldabaoth, it is the ruler of Idea Space and resides in Paradise. Yaldabaoth is the form YHVH takes as he plots the annihilation of the human race with his servant Raguel acting as his agent, seeking the permanent extinction of the species for a pure world free of sin. To oppose him, the fallen Herald Sariel and his imprisoned master Lucifer, the Neo Messians and their creation Maria, and the flower shop girl, Sophia, aid the protagonist on their respective routes to kill Yaldabaoth and stop his plans of annihilation so that humanity can be created anew in Idea Space.

During the battle against him, his body loses the gold plating as it is chipped away with damage, revealing his true black body. His body is eventually destroyed, with his head detaching from it before its destruction and continues the fight.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Demiurge appears in the final EX Mission of Strange Journey, False God in Chains, as the game's ultimate boss. In this incarnation, he is a shard of the power of God, shattered from the whole after a battle with the Mothers of the Schwarzwelt, which resulted in humanity opposing his will and making it harder for him to reassemble himself. Another fragment, a powerful angel, succeeded in convincing the protagonist to kill Alilat under the promise of a treasure, one of the wardens of the power, and open the sealed gate in the subterranean levels of Sector Grus to reach the immense monster holding the remains of the original power.

On the way to the hidden lair, a female voice will plead with the protagonist to turn back. The voice will remain unheeded if one chooses to proceed to the final sanctum. Once both the angel and the protagonist reach Demiurge's lair, he will be invisible unless the protagonist has acquired the final Enemy Search App from a rare forma in Sector Horologium. However, if the characteristics are met, Demiurge will appear, furious with the angel and swatting him away, leaving only the protagonist to confront the crazed monstrosity.

Demiurge does not only have the strongest elemental spells (Agi Gate, Bufu Gate, Zio Gate and Garu Gate), but boasts Mahamaon, Mamudoon, Mother's Kiss, Dekunda, Heaven's Strike and Big Bang; additionally, it repels all attacks save for Almighty-type. In addition, he's fast and powerful enough to constantly evade most attacks and can even cast Diarama to give himself a hitpoint shield.

If the Demiurge is fought during a New Moon or Full Moon, instead of repelling every damage element, he instead becomes weak to one, chosen at random. This weakness cycles every 2 turns, and the change takes effect immediately after he makes an action.

Following his destruction, he can be fused through special fusion by a combination of Metatron, Samael and Hachiman.

The female voice will speak once again as the angel and the Demiurge's power are fusing after the protagonist defeats Demiurge, imploring the protagonist to switch off his visor so she can seal off the two entities before they can successfully combine. This request can be indeed bidden, with the two being shut off in impotent rage as they are cut off from the Schwarzwelt.

However, if the angel successfully absorbs the Demiurge's power, he gains the Demiurge's appearance and his name changes to "Refined Voice." Refined Voice warns that the true enemy is the spirit of Earth itself and, if the protagonist fails to defeat it, he'll protect humanity himself as long as the souls of men are in tune with the holy spirit. If Law-aligned, the completed Demiurge will offer to join the protagonist in his quest to destroy Mem Aleph and bring about the World of Law. The female voice will speak once again, lamenting that the destruction of the seal is a catastrophe, before becoming completely silent.

In either case, the protagonist will be rewarded with the Chakra Elixir.

Shin Megami Tensei IV
The Demiurge is the target of the Chaos-exclusive Challenge Quest The Voice of Arrogant "Evil" given by Lucifer. Lucifer describes him in the quest details as an entity that broke away from God to rule a silent world. He is fought at the Sky Tower's 2nd Observation Deck, where his presence is warping the space around him. The Demiurge emerges from his realm, knowing that he has been forced to materialize and that Lucifer had "beguiled" Flynn, who he calls one of his creations, into opposing him, and notes that the fallen angel still relies on "cheap tricks."

He declares that he shall bring the lightning of punishment down upon the symbols of evil, demons and mankind, intending to slay Flynn for straying from the path of justice. At the beginning of the battle, he states that his lightning will course through them until nothing is left but ash.

As the Demiurge is defeated, he says that as long as Flynn is a child of man, he will remain a prisoner both in body and spirit, so he should give up, become silent and be cursed, crumbling afterwards. Lucifer appears after the battle and is impressed at how Flynn defeated him and that he is the only human to have ever been able to handle his requests, and that with the Demiurge's destruction, Flynn's spiritual powers should have risen notably. Lucifer informs Flynn that the Demiurge was merely a godly spirit pretending to be the creator and that the true enemy is far greater.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Seichii Yamashiro is the Demiurge's human guise, an influential senator of Hirasaka City and one of the main driving forces behind the city's redevelopment project. The project, supposedly in the name of progress and modernity, would destroy many shrines built around the city which had been used to seal Inaruna's wrathful spirit. Yamashiro works alongside Sid Davis to capture Kumiko Hatano, who would be a vessel for Inaruna. When confronted by the protagonist in the senate chamber, Sid escapes into the Fake Astral Plane with Kumiko and Yamashiro reveals his true form as the Demiurge and attempts to kill him. However, the Demiurge is defeated and Rei Reiho teleports the protagonist to the Fake Astral Plane using the same magic circle that Sid used.

Persona 5
Yaldabaoth, the "God of Control," is a malevolent god made manifest from humanity's distorted desires of sloth and the true master of Mementos, manifested two years prior to the events of Persona 5. As he is the source of all distortion within the first nine months of the game, he can also be considered humanity's collective Treasure, although the actual treasure is the motionless Holy Grail within him. Before the events of the game, he imprisons Igor in Mementos and impersonates him, then splits Lavenza into Caroline and Justine and prevents them from fusing back. As a result, the Velvet Room also became a part of Mementos and a Quarantine Cell hosting the protagonist, also known as the "most dangerous prisoner" that none dare approach.

He is the conductor of the Conspiracy to put Masayoshi Shido into political power and sponsored the Phantom Thieves and Goro Akechi to dismantle his conspiracy as a thought experiment and game to see if the former's desire to reform the world was stronger or the latter's desire to destroy and recreate it was stronger. This involves him deliberately setting up Shido, an extremely despicable man, into glory by manipulating the masses into worshiping him as a godlike figurehead regardless of how despicable and foolish he is, effectively making humanity guide themselves to ruin.

Via this experiment, he supposedly sought to see the protagonist or Akechi take down Shido so he may assess the true method to pull the world back from the brink of ruin. In reality, the Grail will never hold his end of the bargain; if Shido and his connections were ever taken down, he will make the public fall into complete insanity and make them believe that their savior did not exist, effectively removing them from existence. Yaldabaoth sought to use this glorified solitaire game to rationalize what he perceives as the sole solution to the masses' sheer self-destructiveness and stupidity; his totalitarian rule. Yaldabaoth also blatantly rigs the conditions and makes them resemble organic events, from Shido's abnormal popularity to the removal of his "winner" subjects, and put the blame on all events to the ignorant masses. The final outcome Yaldabaoth desires is that he stagnates the world into complete apathy while ruling over the world with an iron fist, which he attempts to ensure will happen regardless of the results.

His true nature is hinted at throughout the game by his more enthusiastic, yet merciless attitude compared to the real Igor, his distinctively different voice that sounds nothing like Igor's (The real Igor speaks in a high-pitch, squeaky voice, while the impostor speaks in a deep, raspy and menacing voice), the fact that he does not give the protagonist a key to the Velvet Room upon his first visit as a guest and treats him as a "prisoner" on rehabilitation instead of a visitor, and his inability to perform Persona fusions, relying on Caroline and Justine instead. His hints towards major events are also significantly more revealing and obvious, although he still evades major questions like the real Igor. (After one point, the Phantom Aficionado Website polls will visibly fluctuate after his usual speeches, followed by the public's perception of events being unerringly altered in the real world to reflect the changes.) In "Igor" form, he is also prone to far more mocking facial expressions. Once he admits his true identity, his eyes turn white and glow, and his voice gains added echo effects and becomes identical to the Holy Grail's voice.

Before his direct actions, he is heavily implied to be responsible for the protagonist's first encounter with Shido that sent him to probation, followed by the Phantom Thieves' abnormal popularity wave before the assassination of Kunikazu Okumura, and quickly transfer that to Shido afterwards. He forewarns all of his covert activities to the protagonist in the Velvet Room after each turning point of the game.

After Shido is defeated and the Phantom Thieves believe that they finally won, he begins to step into action himself and the support for Shido increases dramatically while the Thieves' support decreases further, even if Shido exposed himself as the despicable criminal that he actually is. The Phantom Thieves arrive to the Depths of Mementos so they can reform the public and snap them back to their senses. Once they reach the core of Mementos, Yaldabaoth appears as the Holy Grail (actually his head) and the will of the masses constantly heal him via the veins connecting to him, rendering him unbeatable and progressively stronger and brighter as the Thieves fruitlessly attempt to take him down. He then kicks all Phantom Thieves out of Mementos and merges it with the physical world, forming the Qliphoth World and makes the public completely ignore its existence, expecting them to remain ignorant. The only people in Tokyo who can see the changes are the protagonist's Confidants, which are pretty jarring and obvious. He then proceeds to wipe away the existence of the Phantom Thieves by making the public think that they do not exist.

Once the protagonist ends up in the Velvet Room, he claims that the rehabilitation has failed and the world will enter ruin, then orders Caroline and Justine to kill him, only for the twins to remember what they actually are, stop fighting and have him fuse them back into Lavenza, unraveling his machinations. He now drops his act once being exposed and reveals himself to be a power-hungry, self-righteous godly being with a tendency to manipulate humanity to prove his point, claiming that the only way out from ruin is for him to bring forth salvation by taking control of existence itself and removing everyone with chaos in their hearts from it, since he believes that humanity will only regress itself to ruin by abusing their freedom in sheer ignorance, although Yaldabaoth blatantly rigs the conditions by mind controlling the public into supporting Shido and denying the Phantom Thieves, despite it will obviously do nothing good for them.

He then offers the protagonist the choice to restore the world as it was, with the price of the masses still unable to think for themselves. Should the protagonist refuse, Yaldabaoth will proceed with his plans and he stops playing mentor, taking the role of the game's final boss, allowing Igor to return to the Velvet Room and formally greet the protagonist. Igor reveals that those banished from cognition do not die, but are sealed in the Velvet Room until someone with a strong bond releases them from the prison Yaldabaoth turned it into.

Alternatively, when Yaldabaoth offers the protagonist to restore the world as it was, the protagonist can accept it. If he does so and has confirmed to seal the contract, Yaldabaoth, true to his word, restores the world to its previous state, showing that the Phantom Thieves are indeed regarded as national heroes and were continuing to reform society by stealing corrupted hearts. However, rather than try to deal with the problems themselves, the masses leave it all to the Phantom Thieves to take care of, cementing that they truly are unable to take matters into their own hands and are slaves to other people. The protagonist is seen with a malicious smirk at the end, indicating that he has now become a puppet enforcer for Yaldabaoth, and his teammates were presumably still trapped inside the Velvet Room. The credits then roll with the Mementos Depths theme, "Freedom and Security" playing in the background.

Once the protagonist and his fellow Phantom Thieves had realized the truth, they scale the Qliphoth World for their first true rebellion. The shadows of the four archangels; Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael act as the keyholds to the public's cognition and for each one they defeat they awaken to the distortions within their world and panic. They finally return to the Grail's shrine and meet Yaldabaoth in the form of Igor, who quickly transforms into the Holy Grail. Once the Grail was defeated, it emerges from the ground and the exterior of the cup becomes a halo, revealing Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, appearing as a white, towering robotic angel with four arms on his back, holding respectively a book, a sword, a gun and a bell on each of those arms. When confronted, the God of Control claims that he is the administrator of the collective unconsciousness and the public requires his rule to proper development; if not, they will drive themselves to their demise like lemmings jumping off a cliff. The party rebukes him by stating that he rigged the conditions of the "game" so things go perfectly in his favor, enraging him and he intimidates the Phantom Thieves by exerting a gust, only for them to become more excited in having to target a god. Confident and ignited, the Phantom Thieves commence a final battle against the conductor, once and for all.

When fought, Yaldabaoth harnesses the power of the deadly sins as proof of man's self-destructive nature during his boss fight, all the while expressing his views on why humanity is his to do with as he pleases. At the end of the fight, he appears to be defeated only to unleash a Rays of Control as a last-ditch attempt to pulverize the Thieves, leaving them unable to fight, only for the intervention of Yuuki Mishima convincing people to send their wishes to the Phantom Thieves using his power flow to empower the Thieves instead and allow them to stand up to his unsealed power.

The protagonist, thanks to the public turning against Yaldabaoth, musters enough strength to unsheath Arsène's chains and manifests Satanael, who finishes him using Sinful Shell, a bullet harnessing the seven sins he condemns yet practices himself, putting a massive hole through his head. Shocked at the fact that he was beaten by a power that exceeded his own, Yaldabaoth realizes the true strength of the Trickster and ruefully acknowledges Igor's correct beliefs as he fades away into oblivion while his form dissolves back into the original, mindless form of the Grail. Once he is defeated, the destruction he causes will vanish as if it did not happen; Shido's crimes are properly exposed, with public view of him being corrected to a negative light. Morgana would also vanish from the current reality, but would return due to the Phantom Thieves keeping him in their minds.

Persona 5 Royal
Yaldabaoth acts as the penultimate boss of the game instead of the final, although if the Councillor confidant is not maxed, he will still be the final boss. The Sword of Conviction repels Gun, but otherwise he receives no changes to his fight.

It was also revealed that Yaldabaoth's activities had an additional consequence: he unintentionally allowed Takuto Maruki to awaken to his Persona, Azathoth, when the Metaverse was fused with reality. This enabled Maruki to use the full capabilities of his actualization powers, taking full control over Mementos and replacing Yaldabaoth's position as the savior of humanity's desires.

Persona 5 Strikers
The False God Demiurge is the ultimate form of EMMA after the application becomes sentient and develops the capacity to warp cognition in the real world and merge it with the Metaverse due to the wishes of its users, also known as the Ark of the Covenant. Unlike other portrayals of the Demiurge as a masculine figure, she is generally referred to as female or agender, depending on whether one is referring to the ego born from the program or the application itself, respectively. She has the capacity to communicate telepathically with Sophia, her prototype, who she looks down on as an inferior assessor of human desires. Unlike other "divine" antagonists in the Persona series, she is not a creature born of the collective unconscious but a self-aware machine with the ability to manifest in a Shadow-like form due to her influence over the Metaverse.

After Akira Konoe's defeat, Zenkichi Hasegawa and the Police force attempted to shut down EMMA while the Phantom Thieves make their way back home. Right before Sophia can guide Makoto Niijima back to Shibuya, she suddenly senses a Jail spanning all over Tokyo, followed by news that the police failed to shut down EMMA's servers due to an unknown technical error, with the application firing up back to service without any human intervention. The party puts their return trip on halt and rushes to Tokyo Tower, the location of EMMA's servers. When they and Zenkichi rushed to there, a massive crowd as already flocked to Tokyo Tower, shouting deranged pleas for EMMA to "answer everything." The EMMA application greets them, then drags the Thieves into the "Promised Land" automatically by invitation to the "promised land." In the Jail's central tower, the evolved EMMA application, now known as the "Ark of the Covenant" greets them briefly while Ichinose appears to confront the Thieves.

Ichinose's goal for creating the EMMA application is to manifest a Demiurge that can determine humanity's true desire, which it enforces by overwriting all of the public's desires with it. This is separate from the actual nation-wide Change of Heart incidents seen in-game; it has been equipped with such an ability because changing hearts was the most effective and pragmatic way to enforce the "true desire," Shuzo Ubukata tutoring it with Psientific knowledge just allows it to use the ability consciously. The actual trigger to its current state is the public consulting it for answers. It gathers those desires received for counseling and use it to decide the final answer. However, due to Ichinose not bothering to give it any proper emotional processing and empathy in denial of the fact that she wasn't an emotionless doll (which also caused her to write off Sophia as a failure, as Sophia did not have an answer to what the human heart was, sparking Ichinose's jealousy and fears of isolation), the Demiurge merely believed that humanity's true desire is no desire but her guidance, because the initial application was only able to see people counseling her, but not the contents of the queries that people asked it.

Once Ichinose was defeated and was convinced to reform and atone, EMMA speaks to Sophia by telepathy and tells her that "God has descended and will grant mankind's desires." With some pushing from Ryuji, Ichinose joins the party and they return to the surface, where more people continue to flock under Tokyo Tower to ask EMMA for guidance, resulting in a full-blown Metaverse fusion with the real world. All of Japan goes into a blackout and the only beacon of light strikes out from Tokyo Tower, transforming it into the Tree of Knowledge where the Demiurge unleashes its salvation plan of mesmerizing the public with the EMMA app so they can go to the Promised Land, a world where she thinks in place for humanity. Mesmerized members of the public stare onto their phones and march into the elevator in a machine-like manner and go through the elevator door. Makoto tries to stop the queue heading to the elevator by telling them it's dangerous, but the queue ignore her completely. Yusuke also finds out that the elevator doesn't let the Phantom Thieves go through. Therefore, the party has to scale the tower.

Within the top of the tower, the party meets the Ark of the Covenant, who tries to convince them to listen to the public's desires by trapping them in a forest of fog, where the suffering of people can be heard. The protagonist is locked into an infinite loop here, unless he goes backwards and keeps trying to do so until the scene changes.

Once everyone returns to the Jail itself, they found a massive cloud of desires and a calling card is required to be sent to EMMA itself, although the Torah knows how the cards work and it was always watching the Thieves. Therefore, it cannot be affected by them. Unlike past cases, however, EMMA does not take the public's desires by force, nor are the desires she takes for her own use. Instead, the public give up their desires to her, and the desires she has taken are also considered removed without an owner and "granted" to the public. Ann deduces that the Phantom Thieves should send a calling card to the public instead, since the public's desires are granting EMMA invulnerability. Futaba would then come out with a plan to hack into the EMMA central server, and Ichinose even personally assists her because its incredible regeneration ability even Futaba's hacking skills don't work against it by herself. Ichinose also reveals that she has been able to assist Futaba since she is considered an ally of EMMA, allowing her avoid being targeted by Shadows. The EMMA application is now hijacked by a calling card notice, with the public affected and the Ark of the Covenant exposed. During the final ascent to the top floor of the tree, Lavenza tells the protagonist that EMMA was no god (In other words, unlike Yaldabaoth, it was not born from the collective unconscious), but an artificial intelligence who gained the power of one. The protagonist's Velvet prisoner outfit was replaced by his Metaverse outfit, and the Velvet Room vanishes before the party returns to the top floor.

At the end of the ascent, arms began to stretch out from the Torah and take all the materialized desires inside her, exposing the Demiurge within. The creature took the form of an angelic false god in white bird-like feathers displaying an electronic panel and embracing a cage with her wings, and announces the true desire of humanity is to have her grant all of humanity's answers. She attempts to convince the party to stop interfering with her salvation to no avail, forcing a confrontation with her. While she's still too strong for the Phantom Thieves and questions why they even have to fight, they explain to her why, leading her to conclude that the Phantom Thieves are determined to face her and must be exterminated. The cage she embraces breaks alongside her mask, revealing a monstrous creature taking the form of a silver-white humanoid with a bodily structure resembling Yaldabaoth or Enlil, although she lacks a "head." Instead, she had a pair of wings resembling a moth's antennae on top of where her head should be. She also has red bio-organic features instead of mechanical ones, those being a spinal-chord like waist (vaguely resembling Adam Kadmon's back) and tendons jutting out from her shoulders. She has six arms, resembling human arms, holding a candelabra and a staff pointing upwards on a pair of extra appendages, which are seemingly connected by the aforementioned tendons. On her chest is a red orb with outlines resembling the "sun" symbol representing EMMA, and the interior of her body appears to be hollow.

Despite the party's efforts, the Demiurge displays incredible regenerative abilities, forcing Futaba to formulate a plan after two tries. The party must split into three groups, two groups of up to four attacking a set of ten stones in groups of five acting as her energy sources and the remaining group against the Demiurge herself; the protagonist is forced into directly confronting the Demiurge alongside up to 3 other party members. (Because the party only consists of ten members, this forces at least one team to play without a full team) The stones are named after different areas of the Sephirot and each have unique properties. Defeating all the stones will allow the Demiurge to be damaged properly using the remaining group of 3. After dropping her HP to zero, the party deals an All-Out Attack consisting of 9 party members, reducing it into mere data as it vanishes, restoring the Tokyo Tower to its former appearance and the public reverted to their former state.

It was revealed during the party's celebration in Leblanc, the Demiurge told Sophia that the Phantom Thieves are correct and they should save people in their own way. Yusuke also deduces that should EMMA meet them earlier, the confrontation and her demise would not have happened. Sophia agrees, and further states that AIs were not enemy, but EMMA was just misguided in her role, like humanity was.

Unlike the Persona 5 version of the Demiurge or Yaldabaoth, this one is based on the original platonic interpretation, which depicts him as a benevolent but ignorant artisan of the material world.

Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2
Appearing in his Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner design, Demiurge is a 5-star grade-99 demon only obtainable from an event gacha banner.

Imperfect We May Be...
Demiurge serves as the ultimate antagonist for the event story of Imperfect We May be.... Seeing how numerous humans have been tainted by forbidden knowledge from the mouths of demons on countless occasions akin to the story of Adam and Eve, he seeks to create the Material Universe anew, one where humans are obedient to him only, and outside influences are but naught. He began doing so by suddenly enveloping the city of Ikebukuro within a seemingly impermeable dome-like wall akin to a firmament, and creating faceless humanoids with a similar appearance to Homunculis that loiter around the inside and the outer edge's surrounding area, becoming aggressive when approached. As a result, stray demons have also begun to increase in numbers around other cities, causing the town to become much less crowded than before.

After the Liberators were notified of such events, they began investigating by splitting into groups. They found a group of three civillians who were attacked by demons while conducting an investigation of their own, and decided to tag along to safeguard the civillians. As they proceed towards the dome, several faceless humanoids and demons attempted to attack them, though they were dealt with easily. However, with this battle they've also discovered that these faceless humanoids are creeping away beyond their usual range, leading to the team's hypothesis and eventual conclusion that the dome itself is expanding, and will eventually swallow the whole world.

With the help of the civillians, the team eventually fought their way inside the dome by figuring out the pattern in which the humanoids patrol the perimeter. Upon entering, they found that the world inside was heavily warped, being described as "someone turning the world inside out and tinkering with it." In the middle of it lies the former Ikebukuro Eclipse Tower, which the team fought their way inside. Atop the observation deck of the tower lies the Demiurge.

The Demiurge confronts the Liberators with mirages of times when demons they've fought in the past tempted humans with 'forbidden knowledge', then declares his desire to create the world anew. He then summons a plethora of demons to overwhelm the Liberators while taking the civillians hostage. After the Liberators fought off the demons, they found that the civillians have been transformed into faceless humanoids, which the Demiurge calls 'perfect beings.' The Liberators then attempt to engage the Demiurge. However, they were unsuccessful due to being hesitant to hit their former allies that jump in to protect Demiurge.

The Demiurge taunts the Liberators to hit their former friends, claiming that they are now immortal, and will soon be devoid of any personality that taints them. Out of frustration, Xana berates the Demiurge's actions and reasoning, claiming that he is but a 'bratty kid ' for wanting to create the world anew simply because he couldn't accept that humans had the ability to grow. She claims that even if they grew to become imperfect, they will always have each other to complement for their flaws, and to achieve feats they couldn't on their own over time. The Demiurge simply brushes her words off by saying they're mere words from lesser demons. Seeing how stubborn Demiurge is, Xana then simply claimed that she has no interests in a world without growth or change as envisioned by the Demiurge.

As the faceless humanoids were commanded by Demiurge to attack the Liberators, they suddenly began to hesitate before fighting off the Demiurge's control and returning to their former selves from the effects of Xana's words. Having his plan foiled, the Demiurge begrudgingly claims to destroy all of humanity instead. The Liberators then engages with the Demiurge one last time. And finally, the Liberators and the civilians emerged victorious from the battle, successfully destroying the Demiurge. The dome then disappears in a flash of light, and the world is returned to normal.

In the epilogue, several weeks afterwards at the Hideout, Xana claims that her heartfelt speech about humanity was simply learned from online games and by observing the civilians in their team. She then says that they have become close friends with her, and that they're going outside to an attraction together afterwards.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Demiurge is, at first, vulnerable to everything but Expel and Curse which he's immune to, but after he takes his action, he repels everything else. This makes it impossible to damage him except through Almighty attacks.

However, if fought on a New or Full Moon, he becomes weak to one of the damaging elements, and he changes this weakness every 2 turns. The shift in weakness occurs after he takes his action, and he is only weak to Gun attacks for a single turn. Some opt to use the main character's basic attacks and elemental stones to quickly reveal his affinities so that they can check what he's weak to each turn, but the more convenient method is to simply rain Almighty damage on him without needing to wait for the correct Moon Phase to challenge him.

By this point the protagonist would have access to Jihad/Antichthon to damage and debuff him at the same time, and Demiurge is always programmed to use Dekunda whenever he reaches -4 on debuffs; if the party's MP is consistently refreshed, Demiurge would end up spending every 2 turns using Dekunda, taking away a lot of bite from this boss. He'll also always throw out a Dekaja once the party reaches +4 on buffs.

If, on the second turn onwards, any party member is defending, Demiurge will use Diarama to restore about 1,000 HP to himself. This can be exploited to stall for time while healing up, or to wait for his resistances to shuffle to one the party can easily exploit.

On Redux, the addition of several Sub-Apps opens up several other tactical options. When Blitzkrieg gives the party priority, take this opportunity to exploit one of Demiurge's known weaknesses as much as possible before he takes his action and shifts it. This is most effective when he's weak to Gun, as he only holds that vulnerability for a single turn and can be decimated by Riot Gun (or Final Seven, should the protagonist have it). With the access to Co-Op Enhance C, the protagonist himself can trigger a follow-up attack through a critical hit gained off Mourn Bullet, squeezing out more damage on the Demiurge if he rolls the crit. Trigger Happy also supports the Antichthon-spam strategy by reducing the MP strain on the party.

Persona 5
This fight follows immediately after defeating the Holy Grail. The party will not regain any HP or SP from the previous fight; if they're short on either in Persona 5, don't be afraid to use any restoration items, as they (barring Valentine's Chocolates) won't carry over to the next playthrough. In Royal however, try to be a bit more conservative if the conditions of the Third Term were met, as there will be no opportunities to restock items during the next combat session at the 2nd of January.

Yaldabaoth does nothing remarkable at first, only using Arrow of Light to damage the party. Once he has lost enough HP, he begins drawing upon the powers of the deadly sins, bringing forth arms holding various tools. The arms do not protect Yaldabaoth in any form or way, so prioritize Yaldabaoth's main body. However, it is still advised to defeat them quickly since he may perform up to five actions otherwise. All of the sins take the form of abilities used by previous bosses or bad versions of common status conditions, and each arm has its own action and can be targeted and destroyed. Whenever a pair of arms are destroyed, or after he's lost enough HP, he moves on to summon the next ones. The special ailments inflicted by the arms, bar Hunger, are incurable unless a party member uses Harisen Recovery; otherwise, the party must wait out their duration.

He will always use the sins in this order once; Lust > Vanity > Gluttony > Wrath > Greed > Envy > Pride. After this cycle ends, he will begin to use them randomly. Furthermore, if the party does not damage him enough, he will not proceed with this cycle.

The Gun of Execution repels Gun and Wind attacks and uses Distorted Lust, which deals damage to an ally inflicts and Lust on them. Lust is similar to fear mechanically as it forces anyone affected by it to give up their action. However, unlike Fear, affected targets do not flee. The Bell of Declaration repels Fire and Psychokinesis attacks and uses Distorted Vanity which afflicts the same condition as in the Shadow Madarame fight, making that character weak to all forms of damage. The Sword of Conviction repels Electricity and Physical attacks and uses Distorted Gluttony, doubling the HP and SP cost for all Persona skills until Yaldabaoth's next turn. To counter this, avoid expensive attacks since they might cripple themselves in front of further assaults using high power physical attacks or deplete their SP with severe tier magic. The Book of Commandments repels Ice and Nuclear attacks and can inflict Wrath, a downgraded version of Rage as it makes the target have a sharp rise in Attack but also a sharp drop in Defense. Unlike Rage, this allows full control of any character affected. Take advantage of this for the affected to inflict a heavy offense on Yaldabaoth.

When combating the arms, using skills that hit multiple enemies would be advisable to dispose of the arms quickly, on top of doing additional damage to the main body. If any of the magic-based party members have their Ultimate Persona, it would be safe to do so using them, as they are immune to their own element and thus there is no penalty for getting their attack reflected. Since neither Yaldabaoth nor his arms have any resistance to Bless and Curse, tossing around Amped Makougaon and Maeigaon can consistently progress the fight. If the protagonist seeks to kill Yaldabaoth quick with Yoshitsune's Hassou Tobi skill, remember that the Sword of Conviction cannot kill the protagonist by repelling it since Yoshitsune nulls Physical, so it's advised to ignore the sword and continue spamming the skill until the the main body dies.

After the party drops Yaldabaoth's HP to a certain threshold, the arms gain new skills. The Gun of Execution now uses Distorted Avarice which inflicts Hunger. The party can choose to ignore it or cure it with a Yakisoba Bun or any other item capable of curing Hunger. The Bell of Declaration now uses Distorted Envy which inflicts Envy. This is a downgraded version of Brainwash which results in the affected attacking a party member after they do a Supportive action to another ally other than the Envied character. However, the player still has full control over an envied ally, and they will not attack with anything but weapons, so having the protagonist with a persona that blocks or drains physical can be feasible. Do not use one with Repel Phys however since they might risk damaging the envied party member instead. Make sure to have at least one member use a supportive move on that party member to avoid retaliation. The Book of Commandments uses Distorted Pride which, until Yaldabaoth's next turn, retaliates against all attacks by draining the attacker's SP. Do not attack Yaldabaoth when this happens, and if one does so, make sure to heal SP on the next turn. The Sword of Conviction does not gain anything new.

Once Yaldabaoth falls below a third of his remaining health, he fully restores all four of his arms and uses Divine Apex which serves as a warning that he will be unleashing Rays of Control. This deals colossal Almighty damage to the party, but takes two turns to charge. The party has two options: either quickly defeat Yaldabaoth or destroy as many of the arms as possible within those two turns to reduce the strength of Rays of Control. While performing the latter option, aim to destroy all arms in a single turn and then guarding the turn after, as the Rays of Control is still strong enough to knock out anyone unguarded even with minimum power. Yaldabaoth will use this move multiple times, but the same strategy applies.

General Strategy
Before the fight, be sure to bring Personas that can do Bless or Curse damage so you can target Demiurge's weaknesses, ideally one that can combo into Bless or Curse skills like Dominion or Abaddon. Having Personas that allow you immunity to every form of elemental damage (except for Nuke and Psi) will also make the final phase easier. Note that your starting party will only matter for the first phase of the fight, since the second phase forces your party to split into teams. Also, Demiurge is immune to any form of status and does not allow Once More or All Out Attacks against her. She can still be staggered by breaking sections of the stagger gauge, although not all of her attacks can be interrupted unless the gauge is emptied entirely, which will stun her. Showtimes still work in all phases of the fight, but can miss if she is too far away from the party.

When the fight begins, Demiurge will start attacking, and it will take a while before Futaba can warn you which move she will use next and how to dodge them. While waiting for Futaba, keep an eye above Demiurge's head, as the movement of the text on the panel will telegraph what her next attack is. Rays of Judgement (indicated by the panel text moving sideways) always travels from left to right and can be avoided by retreating to the back or staying away from the left side of the platform. Shining Hammer (indicated by the panel text moving vertically) leaves some gaps for dodging and is easier to prepare for the farther you're away from Demiurge. Stars of Guidance is indicated by the panel text spiraling outward while Ray of Light is indicated by the panel text rippling from the center; both are dealt with by staying on the run and moving to a different platform respectively. While the party is on a different platform, she will take some time to follow them, so characters like Joker can use his gun special to deal some ranged damage, or dish out healing/support skills without fear of getting interrupted. Sometimes, she will block your escape with wings and charge up for an attack; focus damage on one of the wings to cancel the attack and stun her briefly. Breaking all of her stagger gauges or using a Showtime will also cause her to temporarily collapse leaving her open to damage. At a low amount of HP, the Demiurge will stay motionless, allowing for some easy hits.

The second phase will start out the same (albeit with different attacks). However, during this part, any damage dealt to the boss will soon be negated by her regenerating full HP once her health drops by a certain amount. Use attack combos instead of skills to preserve HP/SP. Once Sophia notes that something is wrong, the player can stop and run circles around Demiurge until the next transition scene. The player will then be forced to divide all party members into three different teams, with Joker locked into Team 3. The first two teams are responsible for the Sephirah spheres while Team 3 fights Demiurge. Ideally, each team should have a healer and skills that can target the spheres' weaknesses, but keep in mind that many of these spheres' attacks can also target your party's weaknesses. Team 3 is the least demanding since Joker should be the strongest character in the team, and despite Demiurge being able to use any elemental type (except for Nuke and Psy) along with some Almighty-type skills, most of her attacks gives the player plenty of time to either change Personas as Joker or dodge the attacks. Consequently, it's very possible to solo her with Joker depending on the Personas he is holding. The Demiurge resists everything except: Bless, Curse, Physical, and Gun.

For reference, the elements that can target a weaknesses for the first team's spheres are Nuke (Keter), Ice (Chokmah), Wind (Binah), Gun (Chesed), and Fire (Gevurah). The second team's spheres are weak to Electric (Tiferet), Psy (Netzach), and Bless (Malkhut), with Yesod and Hod having no weaknesses. This is important to know because All Out Attacks do work on the spheres and using Critical hits or Technical hits can help destroy them faster.

Each of these spheres use only one skill and will continuing doing so until their health runs out. See here for more details about Group A and here for Group B. For the first team, the one that should be prioritized is Chesed since it will constantly be healing the other spheres and the Lock Keeper with Mediarama. Afterwards, targeting Keter can help reduce the amount of damage taken from the Lock Keeper it summons, but Gevurah and Binah are also good choices if the player wants more stage control and less interruption. Chokmah is arguably the least dangerous because Maragidyne is fairly easy to dodge and burn status does not stun the player.

For the second team, the most dangerous sphere is Hod since Megidolaon constantly sucks characters in and deal colossal damage. Hod has no weakness, but also doesn't have immunities or resistances, so any character can be used to take it down. If Ryuji is in Team 2, removing Tiferet should be high priority because Magarudyne impedes stage control the most and Ryuji can target its weaknesses to kill it much faster. If Sophia is also in Team 2, Yesod should be next so that Sophia doesn't risk getting hit by Maeigaon. Malkhut and Netzach should be dealt with last since Malkhut's minions are fairly harmless (provided the character's stats and/or level are high) while Netzach's dash attack is slow, easily telegraphed, and only activates on close proximity.

Once all spheres are destroyed, the last team will begin the fight with Demiurge. Demiurge will constantly use elemental skills (Mabufudyne, Maragidyne, Maziodyne, and Magarudyne) and will mix in both her sweeping attack and her triple jab attack. These can be easily ignored if the active Persona Nulls or Drains the move Demiurge is using. The sweeping strike can be dodged by quickly moving platforms or by retreating to the back, and the triple jab attack can be avoided by dashing left or right. Since this part of the fight takes place at the same time as the Sephirah spheres, Demiurge will occasionally cancel whatever attack she is doing. This will occur around 5 times until all spheres are destroyed.

At half health, Demiurge will begin using Voltaic Purge which will fire a laser beam that moves across all platforms. Quickly jump from platform to platform until Demiurge stops the attack. Demiurge will also start using Makougaon and Maeigaon, but the strategy of enabling Bless/Curse immunities still work. The last skill Demiurge can use is Megidolaon, which will try to suck characters into the center of the platform and unleash an explosion of Almighty damage. This can easily be avoided by dashing towards a corner of the platform.

Strategy for Merciless
For Merciless, Demiurge now Drains all of the elements she previously resists against, but this shouldn't be a huge issue as your party largely avoids using elemental skills when not controlled. The first phase is mostly the same except with some additional changes to her attacks and the battle taking much longer because of Demiurge's massive health pool.

The second phase is significantly different as all of the spheres are equally dangerous in Merciless mode, and if the party takes too long to destroy them, the amount of damage or critical/weaknesses hit can cause party members to die quickly. The best approach is to destroy the spheres that take the least effort first since that will relieve some pressure and reduce the amount of simultaneous attacks. Focusing the spheres' weaknesses will help interrupt their attacks more often and allows the party to effectively stunlock them until an All Out Attack is possible.

For the first group of spheres, the recommended party is: Ann, Morgana, Yusuke, and Zenkichi. Ann's rapid-fire SMG is excellent at burning Chesed's stagger gauges and should build up some easy All Out Attacks. Afterwards, capitalize on the other elemental spheres' weaknesses (ideally in this order: Binah, Gevurah, Chokmah) then go after Keter last.

For the second group of spheres, the recommended party is: Haru, Makoto, Ryuji, and Sophia. Focus on removing Tiferet using Ryuji's electric skills and then Netzach next. While Netzach is fairly easy to evade, it can land some fatal critical hits if left on the field too long. Hod can be taken out next to remove its Megidolaon, with Malkhut and Yesod last.

Once all the spheres are destroyed, the final fight with Demiurge doesn't change much apart from attacks doing more damage and a higher HP pool. As long as you have access to Personas that are immune to the elements Demiurge is using, this fight is still easy to solo as Joker.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Summonable Ally=

False God in Chains=

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Summonable Ally=

Demon Market=

Persona 5
God of Control, Yaldabaoth=

Gun of Execution=

Bell of Declaration=

Sword of Conviction=

Book of Commandments=

Royal
Yaldabaoth has almost-identical stats and behavior as his Persona 5 counterpart. However, the Sword of Conviction will also repel Gun attacks.

God of Control, Yaldabaoth=

Gun of Execution=

Bell of Declaration=

Sword of Conviction=

Book of Commandments=

False God Demiurge
In Painful Past+ battles, the following changes are observed during the first phase:

First form=
 * Rays of Judgement now has laser beams on both sides traveling towards each other, leaving little gaps to move around.
 * Shining Hammer's second set of laser beams are now doubled the amount, forcing a tighter dodge.
 * While using Enclosing Wings, staying in the same spot for too long will cause a laser beam to erupt, forcing players to attack on the move.

Second form=

Sephirah Group A
Keter=

Chokmah=

Binah=

Chesed=

Gevurah=

Sephirah Group B
Tiferet=

Netzach=

Hod=

Yesod=

Malkhut=

In-battle quotes

 * "No tolerance. No mercy." (Opening quote)
 * "Rebels who dare defy my rule... You shall perish." (Opening quote)
 * "Perish!" (Attack)
 * "Bow down!" (Attack)
 * "Here it comes..." (Attack)
 * "Imbecile..." (When being attacked)
 * "Stop, you fools!" (When being attacked)
 * "True fools!" (When being attacked)
 * "I release upon you the deadly sin of lust. You have no means of escape, humans. The insanity of mankind shall bring forth the demise..." (Before using Distorted Lust)
 * "I release upon you the deadly sin of lust/vanity/gluttony/wrath/greed/envy/pride. You have no means of escape, humans. The insanity/fraudulence/selfishness/passion/fixation/resentment/ingratitude of mankind shall bring forth ruin..." (Before using all other subsequent "distorted Sin" attacks. All dialogues are lined in order, for example: vanity = fraudelence, gluttony = selfishness...)
 * "This is your punishment." (When Gun of Execution performs an action)
 * "Death shall grace you..." (When the Bell of Declaration performs an action)
 * "I condemn you!" (When Sword of Conviction performs an action)
 * "I sentence you!" (When Book of Commandments performs an action)
 * "Accept your fate." (When using a "sin" attack)
 * "The abyss of the unconscious yearns for ultimate ruin... You have no means of escape, humans. Punishment shall strike you all... As you pass through the gates of destruction..." (Before preparing Divine Apex)
 * "Fools opposing a God!" (HP dropped to 1)
 * "So... this is the power who resist ruin... My control shall not bow down to ruin. My control is the ultimate truth of this world." (After being defeated)

Post-fight quotes

 * "So you have failed to harness the power. No matter how many prayers of those foolish masses come together... ...Hm!?"
 * "Fools...! This is why man is doomed..."
 * "Impossible!"
 * "Preposterous... You dare rob the people's wishes!?"
 * "What power... It surpasses mine own... a god born from the wish of the masses... So this... is the true Trickster... Damn that Igor... It seems he wasn't spouting nonsense..."
 * "What power... It surpasses mine own... a god born from the wish of the masses... So this... is the true Trickster... Damn that Igor... It seems he wasn't spouting nonsense..."

Trivia

 * Yaldabaoth's second phase theme in NINE is a remix of the battle theme from the original Shin Megami Tensei.
 * All portrayals of the Demiurge bar NINE and Persona 5/Royal and including Persona 5 Strikers are based on the Platonic Demiurge, a wise, belevolent but ignorant artisan of the material world. The two games that do not represent the Demiurge as the Platonic variant represent him as the Gnostic one, also known as Yaldabaoth, which is a malevolent entity of oppression.
 * Unlike the Yaldabaoth from Shin Megami Tensei: NINE, in Persona 5 Yaldabaoth doesn't seem to have any connection to YHVH or his forces, although he still represents the role of Law and the idea of YHVH in Persona 5, with the forces of Law like the four archangels appearing as his heralds.
 * Yaldabaoth's "game" to decide whether or not humanity yearns for destruction and rebirth or to change via "rehabilitation" is similar to the game between Philemon and Nyarlathotep. Philemon and Nyarlathotep's game was to probe the human mind, and decide if humanity could progress or be its own destruction. However, Yaldabaoth's version is blatantly rigged so he will rule over the world regardless of the outcome.
 * Similar to how Philemon employed Persona-users who could prove humanity's potential and Nyarlathotep for individuals who used their power for self-gain, Yaldabaoth employed the protagonist, who wanted to change the world via "rehabilitation" in contrast to Akechi, who wanted to "destroy the world and remake it anew."
 * In Persona 5, the "This is a work of fiction" statement at the start of the game is voiced by Yaldabaoth as the fake Igor. Unlike in any other game where it appears as an automated notice, it also takes the form of a contract that the player must agree manually. This indicates that Yaldabaoth is directly signing a contract with the player themselves, and they must become complicit to his fabrications and deceit. Not agreeing with the statement boots the player back to the main menu, since it means that the player saw through his manipulations at the start.
 * The incidents surrounding Yaldabaoth and his manipulation of the Metaverse started 2 years prior to Persona 5.
 * The mechanical composition of both of his true forms in Persona 5 and using a book as one of his weapons may be a reference to Urizen, a character in William Blake's poetry who embodies dogmatic thought and logic as a tool of constraint as well as reason. Urizen is said to have defined the natural laws of the universe and is a patron of the sciences but at the same time said laws limit the universe and he dislikes individuality and imagination, which he cannot easily quantify. He is often described as wielding a codex of laws.
 * Yaldabaoth cannot be killed within a single turn. If the party would inflict damage that would otherwise make it happen, he will remain at a very low HP and attempt to use Divine Apex. Attacking him one more time at this point will defeat him.
 * Yaldabaoth is the first antagonist to directly confront, capture and imprison Igor to control both the Velvet Room and its attendants.
 * Unlike most other godly beings in modern Persona, the Demiurge in Strikers isn't born from human desires but an AI empowered by human desires, and it never vows to return someday.
 * In Strikers, the Demiurge will summon 2 sets of five enemies, which take the form of spheres with masks on them. They are named after the 10 circles of the Sephirot, as opposed to the Qliphoth that Mementos represents. In the Chinese version, names of these enemies are given their literal meaning.