A Chrono Trigger Point to Ponder – Gurus' Gambit

[Kitt]

A Chrono Trigger Point to Ponder – Gurus' Gambit

Norstein Bekkler is rather amazing, if you consider it.  Not only is he is able to make perfect clones of the characters, but also deliver them to the particular character's home, no matter which time period they live in.  That seems to combine Melchior's abilities as the Guru of Life with Gaspar's abilities as the Guru of Time.

So, consider if you will –

Gaspar, viewing the various possible time streams, realizes that the only one that isn't completely ruinous to humanity and the entire planet is one where Crono is improbably drawn into his role as a time-spanning hero by running into Marle and following her through that first inadvertent trip through time.  He confers with the other gurus through mystical means to explain what he discovered.  Melchior is alerted to the ultimate need to reforge the Masamune in the Present, Belthasar knows to create the Wings of Time in the Future and set his plan for Death Peak in place, and Gaspar himself completes his Chrono Trigger, and does what he can to make the End of Time somewhat more functional and hospitable.

At the proper moment, Gaspar manipulated time just enough that he could whisk Marle's Pendant off during her collision with Crono.

Melchior snuck in, under another subtle time manipulation, to align Lucca's Telepod to interact with Marle's Pendant in such a way as to 'lean' on a temporal weakness Gaspar discovered between the Present and the Middle Ages.  They knew that they were tinkering with Time and Life in that Marle would likely be mistaken for Leene, and then erased from the time stream after Leene was not returned.  If Crono did not figure it out, Leene, Marle, and the entire unfolding of the best possibility for the 'best' future would be irretrievably lost, but they reasoned the need was great enough to warrant the risk.

So, Norstein Bekkler could be an advanced construct of Belthasar's, who imprinted the construct's mind with limited versions of their abilities (Melchior's maker abilities to create perfect clones and Gaspar's temporal ones to deliver them in various time periods) in a far-reaching bid to help Crono and his friends save the world from Lavos.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

I agree, Norstein is just so mysterious and fascinating. His ability to produce near-perfect (but non-living) human clones (and cat food) and his relationship to the guru's, especially Gaspar, is certainly interesting and worth exploring. Your theory is as good as any.

MrBekkler, a user here, drafted a really great fan game, Chrono Shift, that never was finished. I helped him with some rewrites and admittedly contributed to scope creep. It essentially explored events in 12020BC (20 years before Crono and friends arrived in Zeal), and followed both the literal ascension of Zeal with Norstein as a main character.

It explored the political climate of the era, with multiple nations (in addition to Zeal) being in conflict and manipulated by two "goddesses" (actually two sisters who were the two first humans to make contact with the Frozen Flame in 3 Million BC, who then ascended to false godhood).

In this story, Norstein was a scientist and eventual fourth Guru, who studied DNA and genetic manipulation in regards to magic. He eventually turned evil, turning against the party 2/3 through the game (pulling a reverse Magus), and ended up being possessed by the Black Wind: a manifestation of a living universe of pure darkness and unlimited magic potential.

The story ended with the possessed, monster-fied Norstein losing his head and hands (while his living headless, handless body is fought by his old allies), which are trapped within a tesseract outside space-time. Over eons he loses his sanity and turns not-so-evil and takes the form we witness in Chrono Trigger. But it is his years of research into mystical genetics that births both the Mystic race and his ability to create soulless husks "clones."