| “ | Johnny?...Did you die? No you can't... | „ |
| ~ Grace Garland |
Grace Garland is the sister of Johnny Garland from the video game Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Graces dies three years prior to the game along with her and Johnny's father Graham.
Background[]
The Graham family
Grace lived with her father Graham and her brother Johnny in New York City. Mrs. Garland died when Grace and Johnny were both very young but Graham was quite wealthy and was able to care well for his children himself. One day Grace and Johnny were in a car accident both, children along with the chauffeur were killed by an on-coming car. Graham was beside himself and fell into a deep depression. Eventually Graham was contacted by a man named Marlow Brown. Marlow was a researcher who was aspiring to become a black magician, he had heard of a book called the Émigré Manuscript, a book that was said to record information that would allow one to undo death. Marlow soon enough convinced Graham that the book was real, quickly afterward Marlow got Graham to sponsor his research and even help him in his endeavors. The book had been used a few times but hidden away by it's creator, Roger Bacon, after each use. After untold amounts of research Graham and Marlow were able to locate Roger's latest hiding place for the book. Graham arranged transport and retrieved the book.
Once in their possession Graham and Marlow began to feverishly pour over the book's secrets. The book had many secrets over the nature of reality besides just undoing death and Graham learned of the forces of Malice and Will. Malice was the manifested form of human vices such as anger, fear and hatred. Will was a manifestation of sentience educing optimism, pride and love. Malice manifested as a red light and Will as blue. While Malice was traditionally seen as the more powerful and evil Graham speculated that both could for the rituals, up until then all the attempts to use the Émigré Manuscript had been done purely using Malice, none had even considered Will being supplicated. Graham noted that while Malice had a far more tangible effect on the world it had little effect on the human spirit, which was why up until then all attempts to bring back the dead had only reanimated bodies without souls, thus creating undead monsters out of the deceased. Neither Graham nor Marlow had much raw mana to marshal the forces of Malice and Will so they instead built a machine to generate the energy to work off of. Graham and Marlow used the basement in Garland manor to prepare and once finished started the ritual.
Revived[]
Roger Bacon had noticed his manuscript had gone missing and tracked it down. By the time he arrived in New York and found Garland manor Graham and Marlow were just starting the rite. Roger tried to stop Graham but Marlow restrained him. For whatever else Roger thought of the endeavor and the follies of past attempts he noted he was impressed with Graham's notion of using both Malice and Will in specific functions for the ritual. Graham used Malice to manifest living bodies for his children and Will to attract and lock their souls into their vessels. Grace was the first to be revived and Graham, overcome with awe, stopped his rite midway through. Roger began panicking even more stating that once started the rite must be finished or disaster would befall them all, however Graham seemed unable to hear him. As Graham delayed the Will began dissipating from Johnny's body. Grace glanced across at her brother. Grace was confused about where they were but she could tell her brother was dying. In the delicate climax of the ritual Grace willed her brother back to life but expended her Will in doing so. Johnny's life was stabilized but the Malice overcame Grace's body.
Lady leaves the lab after killing Graham.
The Malice congealed and exploded, destroying the apparatus that contained Grace's body. After the flash cleared "Grace" was stand up with a blank expression on her face. Roger stood back but Marlow and Graham studied the situation, as "Grace" began to leave and Graham tried to talk to her, when she ignored his pleas Graham reached out to her, "Grace" killed Graham in cold-blood for the minor inconvenience and continued on her way. Marlow quickly ran away in terror while Roger stayed behind to clean up the lab and get Johnny to safety. Roger knew whatever had walked out of the lab was not Grace Garland. Grace's spirt had been detached from her body which was being used as an avatar for the Malice, it would go onto simply be called "Lady".
Johnny remembers nothing of the ordeal and his last memories were of being in the car crash, before he awakens in a hospital, brought there by Roger, who had left before he awoke. Johnny has some vague senses of fires in a laboratory but is overcome with fear when he tries to focus any further. Over the course of the game Johnny meets Shania and Natan, who were looking for Lady after she destroyed their village. Johnny eventually encounters Lady but does not recognize her. Johnny eventually goes to his father's old manor and finds the secret basement lab, while there he sees a photo of him and Grace and remember Lady is his sister, though he is still unclear how Grace could become Lady. Finding Roger, who he had previously met with Hildegarde Valentine, will help Johnny find out the missing piece of his past and make him aware of Grace's sacrifice. Roger states at that point Grace no longer existed, Johnny resolves to kill Lady so that his sister can rest in peace.
Enigmatic State[]
The nature of Grave vs Lady is lift ambiguous. Lady is made of Grace's remains, but nearly everything else is unclear. Grace's soul may still exist in Lady, but with no memories, or identity, it would be both powerless and unaware. Grace may have been in some form of afterlife the entire time Lady is active. If Grace is anything like the first person in the Shadow Hearts series to be revived with the Émigré Manuscript - Elaine Heyworth, then her soul is shackled to her body, but not inhabiting it, and caught just outside it unable to influence it's actions, but fully aware of them. A thing to consider is that Grace gave up her soul to revive Johnny, but his soul was no present at the time, and what inhabited his body, was her Will; As Grace did not have access to the formulas of the Émigré Manuscript and was merely focusing the only thing she had, her Will, Grace may not be Lady at all, it is possible Grace's soul went into Johnny's body, and "Johnny" is Grace, though assuming her brother's identity. Since Lady cannot speak, or even think on a sentient level, and Johnny lost his memories and is reconstructing both his identity and what happened to him from clues through-out the story, any of the above possibilities are technically possible, but the true nature of Lady remains unconfirmed. The only things certain about Grace are that she died, was bought back, loved her bother, Lady is made of her body, and she gave up a full resurrection to make sure she did not see her brother die again.
With Lady's death, Grace is either free of a state of living death, reincarnated as a new soul that is now one-with-the-malice-home-world, or was reconstituted as her brother and saying goodbye to her/his former life.
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| Shadow Hearts Heroes |
| Koudelka Koudelka Iasant | Edward Plunkett | James O' Flaherty | Roger Bacon |