The Aerie is a major location in NieR. It is where Kainé is first encountered, and where the party later on inadvertently obtains the Sacrifice key fragment—one of five required for entry into the Shadowlord's Castle—by obliterating the entire settlement.
Description[]
The Aerie overlooks a wide canyon near the Northern Plains. The houses are connected by a series of large platforms, bridges, and ladders. It is frequently shown to be barren, lacking any sight of its citizens, mainly due to their chosen isolation and fear of Shades, outsiders, and generally the unknown as a whole. However, according to Kainé's backstory, it can be assumed that at a time, the village was active to an extent and isolation was moderate considering that some of its inhabitants were outside of their homes.
Interestingly, the houses are repurposed shipping containers, with visible warning labels on their sides.
History[]
The party after The Aerie's destruction.
The Aerie was Kainé's hometown. Because she was intersex, she was ostracized by the superstitious townspeople and their children, who saw her very existence as a bad omen. After her parents passed away, her grandmother took her in, and they moved to an area just outside of The Aerie. During the events of the game (particularly during the first half), the highly-strung townspeople are shown to blame Kainé for almost every misfortune that befalls them, such as when the Shade Hook was fought within the village itself, as they claimed she led it there on purpose.
Nier is instructed by Popola to travel to The Aerie to speak with the village chief. However, upon arriving at the chief's house, he would hear none of what Nier had to say. As he was departing from the village, he and Kainé were attacked by the shade Hook. After defeating it, Kainé tells Nier that she is hunting Hook and for him to not get in her way.
During the quest Fragile Delivery, one of the guards from Nier's Village reveals that he is friends with the village chief and asks Nier to deliver a fragile package to him. After telling the chief about the package, he accepts it and tells Nier to leave.
Later after Nier upgrades his Nameless Blade at the Junk Heap and helps catch a Shaman Fish in Seafront to help Yonah deal with her pain, Hans gives Nier a letter for Popola informing them about Shades appearing in The Aerie again. When he arrived, Kainé was already fighting off the shades near her shack and they both work together to try and kill Hook. While they attempt to do so, the villagers blame Kainé for everything bad that happened to them with Nier telling them to stop it since she is trying to help them.
Once they corner Hook, he attempts to make Kainé hallucinate so she thought Hook was her grandmother using her voice. After Hook tells her why she would want to keep living after everything that happened to her however, Kainé snapped out of it and helped Nier take down Hook and he impaled it. After the fight, Kainé contemplates her reason to keep living and Nier and Grimoire Weiss convince her to help them on their quest. Once she joins them, she informs them about the King of Facade having the Black Scrawl like Yonah does and that he was working on a way to cure it and they leave the Aerie to pursue it.
Following Hook's death, the residents of the Aerie begin to feel sorry for Kainé due to her past and start thinking that she isn't all that bad. Later during the quest The Belated Letter, a man from Seafront reveals that his girlfriend lives in the Aerie and asks Nier to give her a letter along with her favorite flower, a Freesia. When Nier goes to her address however, she isn't home and her house appears to have not been used in a long time. When he attempts to leave the Aerie however, a giant shade attacks him and drops a Freesia when he kills it. After realizing that she might have been killed by the giant shade, Nier attempts to tell her boyfriend, but he refuses to give up on her being alive and rewards him for helping him out.
Five years later, Nier is told that the village has suddenly opened a large shopping center, much to everyone's surprise. When Nier speaks to a citizen and expresses his desire to destroy all Shades, nearly all of the citizens were turned into Shades and begin to attack Nier and his friends. Once they start attacking the citizens they believe to be possessed, the residents become enraged at them and accuse them of being the real monsters. After Kainé is taken out of commission by a shade, a giant one emerged from their defeated remains. After a fierce battle, the entire Aerie was accidentally destroyed by a berserk Emil. After realizing how many innocent people he just killed, Emil is distraught until Nier tells him how he saved his friends in the process. Following Wendy's death, Nier and his friends receive the "Sacrifice" fragment and leave the ruins of the Aerie behind.
During the quest Freesia, the material shopkeeper from Facade reveals that she used to live in the Aerie before she moved and that the Aerie was destroyed. She was also neighbors with the botanists girlfriend that was attacked by a shade. She also reveals to the party that after she was attacked, she became a Shade herself, but none of the adults believed her. After returning to the botanist and his family in Seafront, the party has the choice to tell him what happened to his girlfriend. If they don't tell him, he mentions how glad he is to have his family. If they do tell him however, he leaves his family behind while taking up a sword to find and kill the shade that was originally his girlfriend.
Characters of The Aerie[]
Points of Interest[]
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Kainé is fought as a boss the first time she is encountered, and joins the party after killing Hook further inside. |
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The Aerie features a mailbox just before entering the main area. It remains usable after the town is destroyed. |
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Hook is fought first outside Kainé's shack, and later on is chased all over The Aerie, with the party finally defeating the giant Shade for good. |
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Available during the game's second half are a number of merchants that have set up shop in the town's second circular platform. They can be interacted with as normal, until the guard near the center is spoken to. |
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Sells a limited assortment of recovery items:
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Sells several weapons that can be found in other towns. Most notable for stocking Faith if the player hasn't acquired it from the Forest of Myth during the games' first half. Priced at 18,000 G. |
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Sells a limited assortment of gardening materials:
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Sells a limited assortment of cash crops:
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Similar to Hook, Wendy must be fought at several spots. Emil lets loose once Wendy's health bar is depleted, and destroys the whole town in the process.  Kainé's shack outside The Aerie. |
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Kainé's Sword, exclusive to NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., can be found here after viewing Ending E and listening to "A Parting Greeting" in the title screen's Options menu. |
Notes[]
- Kainé's shack reappears in NieR:Automata underneath the Shopping Center. Emil preserved it as a memory of his friend. This heavily implies that the area was built over the ruins of The Aerie.
