Secret of Evolution

Psaro after having used the Secret of Evolution to become Necrosaro. (NES version)

The Secret of Evolution (進化の秘法 shinka no hihō) is a key plot element in Dragon Quest IV. It is an occult mechanism said to grant the user incredible power through rapid evolution when channeled through the right device, but at the cost of destroying the user's sanity and rendering them a mindless beast.

Appearances

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

The Secret of Evolution was originally discovered by Estark, Lord of the Underworld, a thousand years before the game begins. Estark used the Secret of Evolution to transform his body and become the ultimate life-form, and in so doing becomes the most powerful being on the planet. However, although despite his power, the Zenith Dragon was able to seal him within a tomb deep beneath Mamon.

After this, the secret was lost until it was rediscovered by the alchemist Mahabala, father of Maya and Meena. Concurrent to Mahabala's discovery was the retrieval of the Armlet of Transmutation from the Vault of Vrenor, which is a channeling device necessary to amplify dark energy required to power the transformation process. The armlet would change hands frequently until it found its way into the hands of the monsters.

Unfortunately, Mahabala's apprentice Balzack murdered him and stole his research, using the imperfect version to empower himself and Marquis de Léon. He passed the secret onto their master, Psaro, the Master of Monsterkind. Psaro had held off on using it himself for fear of losing his sanity; however, this changed when his lieutenant Aamon secretly staged the murder of his lover Rose by human thugs, causing him to fly into a rage and utilize the armlet, taking on a form very similar to that of the transformed Estark but with access to even greater power.

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Unbeknownst to either Psaro or the Chosen Hero, Aamon had expected them to kill each other on Psaro's Peak while he perfected the Secret of Evolution and assumed dominion over all monsterkind. This plan was subverted when the Chosen were able to resurrect Rose using an Yggdrasil Flower and restore Psaro from his madness. The Hero, Psaro, and party confronted Aamon in Diabolic Hall in his ultimate form and and destroyed him, seemingly eliminating the Secret of Evolution with him.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

In the Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, it was said that Grandmaster Nimzo was an evil human that took the Secret of Evolution to become a god, however he end up being sealed away in Nadiria, just like Estark.

The Secret of Evolution is mentioned by a scholar in Coburg Castle who claims he is studying psarology, the name of the science being derived from the legend of Psaro.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

Being that the game is an alternate retelling of the story of Dragon Quest IV, the Secret of Evolution plays a crucial role in the game's plot. That being said, the nature of the occult mechanism is alluded to in greater detail than in the original story.

The secret is first mentioned by Aamon, who appears before Psaro in Rosehill Tower via astral projection after the defeat of Raph. He affirms that Psaro is too weak to overthrow his father Randolfo, and asks the estranged prince if he has ever heard of the Secret of Evolution before. He informs him that his subordinate, Dr. Helix Helix, is researching the phenomenon in his laboratory in the Lower Echelon of the Circle of Conquest. When spoken to, the doctor sends Psaro out to gather penteractic crystals from the Lower Echelon of the Circle of Caprice as he needs them to manufacture Sands of Time vital to accelerating his research into the secret.

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Much later, when Psaro, Duffer, and Eileen set out to spy on the Hidden Valley where the prophesied Hero is said to be raised and witness the massacring of the villagers by Dolph's forces, Aamon appears before the group once again. Here he uses fear-mongering and emotional manipulation to trap Psaro into thinking that the Hero and other Chosen Ones will be unstoppable if he does not use the Secret of Evolution to gain power. From here the story unfolds as it did in the original game, with Aamon organizing the kidnapping and murder of Rose while Psaro is occupied in Estark's Crypt. To insure that there would be enough time for his hired thugs to finish Rose off, Aamon installed a succubat that had perfected the Morph spell to imitate Rose. Once she was signaled that the job was done, the mimic revealed herself and mockingly informed Psaro that his lover was dead. Brought to the depths of despair, Psaro dons the Armlet of Transmutation and mutates into an Estark-like form that lays waste to all Nadiria before being killed by the Hero.

However, this sad ending is undone by the timely intervention of Toilen Trubble, who filched some of the Sands of Time from Dr. Helix Helix and pulled both himself and Psaro back far enough to save Rose. The trio then confront and defeat Aamon in his sanctum in the Upper Echelon of the Circle of Caprice, causing the entire Circle to become unstable. It is then revealed that the Circle itself was in fact the Queen of El Zetta, an elf who had been cursed by Aamon to become the landmass he would rule over in the ancient past.

The Queen further explains that her people, the El Zettian elves, had mastered the arts of time and space manipulating magic and were able to condense these energies into physical forms known as the chronocite and travelite crystals. These crystals caught the attention of Aamon and he laid siege to the kingdom with a horde of monsters to claim their power. While it is shown that several elves were able to escape with fragments of the travelite crystal in hand, the very same ones that Psaro himself would use through out the game, it is never directly stated what became of the chronocite crystal. What is shown is that the penteractic crystals are the key ingredient to the Sands of Time, and that Aamon had cursed many El Zettian elves into becoming mindless stone golem slaves he would force into mining the precious mineral. This would be totally pointless and a narrative red herring if Aamon did not see considerable value in the rocks.

From this it can be extrapolated that the penteractic crystals are the remains of the chronocite crystal, which Aamon would have excavated to experiment with to recapture the lost power to manipulate time. Through these experiments he discovered the Secret of Evolution, which is the rapid acceleration of time applied to an individual to generation a tremendous mutation. Aamon saw the potential of this technique to overthrow Randolfo and rule Nadiria unchallenged, but his experiments undoubtedly would have exposed the mind-rendering nature of the secret and he would refuse to apply it to himself. Circumstance would present to Aamon the perfect opportunity in the form of Psaro, whom he would trick into using the secret to kill Randolfo and the rest of the royal family before he and the Chosen Ones would destroy one another. To remove any suspicious of his ulterior motives, Aamon would protray himself as wanting to aid Psaro and had enlisted Dr. Helix Helix as an inocent patsy to support his story.

As it turns out, Randolfo had seen through this plot from the beginning and already conducted his own research into creating the perfected form of the unnatural process, which he would dub the Supreme Secret of Evolution. Having Aamon killed and taking the Armlet of Transmutation for himself, Randolfo would use this technique to confront his son as the game's final boss.

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below & Dragon Quest Heroes II: Twin Kings and the Prophecy's End

The Secret of Evolution is Psaro's Coup de Grâce ability. When used, he transforms into the Manslayer and incinerates foes in front of him with a colossal laser blast.

Dragon Quest Tact

The Secret of Evolution appears as a perk for Psaro the Manslayer which can be learned through Talent Blossoming. At the start of battle, it greatly boosts his ATK, DEF, AGL and WIS as well as reducing the amount of damage taken by 20% for 3 turns

Usage and Effects

The exact steps one must take to perform the Secret are unknown, but it is refered to as an occult mechanism that makes use of alchemical processes to accelerate the evolution of the user. These transformations are unpredictable and vary wildly, with Balzack first becoming a bipedal bovine and then a bloated lizardman, Marquis de Léon appropriately becoming a hideous lion; only Estark and Psaro looking similar. It is also stated that the Armlet of Transmutation is necessary to get the most out of the secret, acting as a channeling device to concentrate dark energies for maximum effect. However, since Grandmaster Nimzo took on a form powerful enough in its own right with no mention or indication of him having access to the Armlet of Transmutation, there may be alternate ways of using the Secret of Evolution other than the armlet and still achieving equally successful results.

One major side effect of using the Secret of Evolution is loss of one's memory. Neither Estark nor Psaro have any recollection of their past after using the secret other than their own names. This side effect only takes place if the Armlet of Transmutation is utilized to achieve the full potential of the Secret of Evolution, as neither Balzack nor Marquis de Léon experienced memory loss after performing the secret imperfectly.

In the PSX remake of IV, Rose's tears were able to reverse the effects of the Secret of Evolution on Psaro, perhaps due to her heritage as an elf, her own unique magical traits, or her love for him. There may be other circumstances necessary in order to make this reversal possible as well.

In Other Languages

Language	Translation	Meaning
Español	Secreto de la Evolución	Direct translation of English name