Human — nier

Humans were the dominant species that once inhabited Earth prior to their extinction due to White Chlorination Syndrome. They were also the creators of the androids and Replicants.

Overview

History

Humans were one of the numerous species that evolved and formed various civilizations across the globe.

After the 6/12 Incident, humanity was forever changed due to an extradimensional particle that emerged from the clash between the Dragon and the Giant, called maso.^[1]^[2] After coming into contact with this particle, it would inflict someone with with an incurable disease known as White Chlorination Syndrome,^[3]^[4] which would either cause death or alternatively mutate them into soldiers of salt known as Legion.^[5] In order to combat WCS, humanity initiated Project Gestalt, a separation of the body and soul. As souls, referred to as "Gestalts," they could wait out the purge of both WCS and Legion, then eventually reunite with their respective soulless bodies, referred to as Replicants.^[1]^[6] Despite humanity having successfully undergone the Gestalt process and being prepared to wait until WCS was filtered out from the world, most Gestalts began to relapse due to genetic instability, and their Replicants started to gain sentience. Developing their own cultures without their respective Gestalts, humanity became the mindless "Shades" faced throughout NieR.^[6]^[7]

Extinction

After the death of the "Original Gestalt" in 3470, Project Gestalt was deemed a failure and all Shades eventually started relapsing, leading to the extinction of both Gestalts and Replicants, effectively ending the human race.^[8]^[9]^[10] However, millennia after their death, androids who believed humanity survived and moved to the moon would inherit the Earth and succeed them. Their legacy would also be immortalized by machine lifeforms.^[11]

After Project Gestalt's failure, plans were made for humanity's revival using the human server on the moon that contained all of its memories, culture, and genetic information.^[12] Many of these memories are shown throughout character stories in NieR Reincarnation.