Elster

This article is about the Character. For the Replika Unit, see LSTR (Elster).

Elster is an LSTR (Elster) type Replika unit in the Eusan People's Navy. She is the player character and protagonist of SIGNALIS (game).

Elster begins the game with the quest to find her missing Gestalt in the facility of S-23.

Main Story

At the start of the game, she awakens on the Penrose to find it has crashed on a frozen planet called Leng. She finds a gate and upon passing through it, finds a hole in the ground, where she finds a strange room in which she picks up the book King in Yellow. She then awakes within the top floor of S-23 Sierpinski, stating that she is searching for Alina Seo.

Over the course of the story, Elster travels through S-23, going deeper into the facility, and passing various enemies before eventually reaching the bottom of the mines. Here, she finds "Nowhere", and after pushing through this strange area, she emerges in a vast field of red, "Eternity". Within Eternity she passes through another gate and finds various previous dead versions of herself, before succumbing to her injuries.

After a dream sequence where she remembers her past with Ariane on the Penrose, she reawakens determined to fulfill her promise. She then descends down a hole to Rotfront. After completing several puzzles in Rotfront, she returns to the strange room, which she learns was Ariane’s. From this point, Elster either chooses to pick up the King in Yellow again and walk through the door to fight Falke, or she rejects it and unlocks the safe in the room using the three keys she collected in her journey.

Elster-512 Past

From documents and flashbacks, a timeline of Elster's life prior to the events of the game could be put together.

Gestalt and the Vinetan War

Elster's Gestalt was a Vinetan soldier whose neural pattern was uploaded to the planet's central Neural Archive. The Eusan Nation used her neural pattern to create the LSTR Replika Unit. Her original neural pattern was lost after the central Neural Archive was destroyed, but the Nation would use the neural pattern of a dead LSTR unit to continue producing them.

The name of Elster's Gestalt is debated, however it is generally accepted that she fought in the Vinetan War with Unit 12. Photographs of Unit 12 were sent to soldiers' families in Rotfront, where Elster can acquire the memory People's Army, 5th Vinetan Infantry Division, Unit 12 in the Yeong Photo Store. During the false ending, Elster experiences the memories of the Gestalt in a series of brief flashbacks, where she is seen with a serious injury to her right eye. She survived the war, and is later seen standing next to Alina Seo with a bandage covering her eye.

Phase 1

Elster would spend the rest of her life on the Penrose, and her trip has 3 main stages.

Phase 1 is the beginning of the trip, though there are no documents detailing their objectives as they are still in the solar system.

During this phase Elster and Ariane would begin to fall in love with each other, as is evident by the Cycle 888 note:

I've tried to teach Elster how to dance. It's so cute how clumsy she can be when it comes to these things.

Phase 2

Phase 2 begins after 1500 cycles (4.105 years) have passed. This is the secondary stage of the Penrose Program, which is documented in the Phase 2 Briefing:

--- Start of decrypted transmission ---

By our calculations, 1500 cycles of mission time will have passed when you receive this message.
Congratulations, Comrade! By now, you should have become fully acclimatized to your new life onboard your ship.

As you approach the Oort Cloud, your search for new worlds will begin.
Utilizing the long-range sensors, you will scout for valuable resources, habitable worlds, or signs of alien life.
Remember to rely on your Replika to assist you in maintaining your vessel.
We all wish you great success in your mission.

--- End of decrypted transmission ---

It is during this phase that Elster and Ariane were very deeply in love as demonstrated by the Cycle 1024 Note

Before I met Elster, I never believed I would find someone I could fall in love with like that.

Phase 3

Phase 3 begins after 3000 cycles (8.21 years) have passed. This is the third and final stage of the Penrose Program, and is the stage where the decay of the Penrose-512 and its crew begin to occur, documented in the Phase 3 Briefing:

--- Start of decrypted transmission ---
Congratulations, Comrade! You've survived 3000 cycles, reaching the final phase of the Penrose Program.
With the end of the operational lifetime of your Replika unit approaching, it is time to prepare for the final phase of your mission.

If you have not found a suitable world for landing by this point, accept that you will not.
Find solace in the thought that others might be successful where you failed.
As you are probably aware, your ship's spare parts and rations will soon be depleted.

Life support systems and reactor shielding will soon begin to fail, and radiation may begin to leak from the cooling system.
We recommend you do not attempt to prolong your suffering by reusing old filters or begin rationing supplies.

Instead, make peace with your fate. We suggest that you ask your Replika, while it is still functional, to spare you from a slow and agonizing death, or that you take permanent rest in the cryogenic pod.

Remember, you will die having served your Nation by partaking in a glorious demonstration of our power.
--- End of decrypted transmission ---

This is the stage in which the beginning of the party held by Ariane and Elster in the Memory Sequence is held.

In this stage, the reactor begins to decay due to lack of maintenance and parts, resulting in a radiation leak. This causes the rapid decay of the bodies of both Elster and Ariane, where it is suggested that in this state, the Gestalt should be either put into the cryo pod for a painless death, or a quick death by the Replika.

Trivia

• The Chinese hanzi associated with Elster throughout the game is 鵲, which means Magpie.
• In the files, Elster is known as Ellie.
• Elster wishes to play the piano.

Gallery

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