Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories/Dark Assembly

The Dark Assembly, also called the Dark Senate, is used for many actions, from creating characters to opening extra stages. To access the Dark Assembly, talk to the Rune Knight at the corner of Holt Village (the character with a wooden mallet speech bubble above her head). This Rune Knight will appear on any base map, not just Holt Village.

After speaking with her, a menu will come up asking you to select a character, and shows their current mana amount. Nearly all actions that can be performed in the Dark Assembly cost mana, which can be earned by defeating enemies (including chests and Geo Symbols) in any stage. Mana is earned only by the character giving the finishing blow and not collectively like HL (money). If a team attack or tower attack finishes off the foe, all participants in the attack will gain equal divisions of the earned mana. Stronger enemies and larger numbers of enemies will yield more mana.

Whichever character is selected from the Dark Assembly menu will be using up their mana to perform actions. Aside from renaming characters, deleting characters, or attending an Assembly meeting as Adell, all actions cost mana. The first action you will do or have done, and probably the one you will do most often, is create characters for your group.

Creating
To create a new character, simply select "Create a New Character" in the Dark Assembly menu after selecting a character to address the assembly. This will open a large array of characters you can create, separated into monster and human groupings. For more information on each individual character, or "class", see the Characters section.

After selecting which character to create, a menu will come up asking how great you want the character's potential. Essentially, potential determines how much of a boost (or subtraction) to stats you will give your character upon creation, and how much mana you spend on creating it. Potential ranges from "Good-to nothing" which costs from 1 to 3 mana, to "Genius" which costs anywhere from 5000 to 15000 mana. Characters created in the top two potential levels, Distinguished and Genius, require approval from senators, but there is no need for approval when reincarnating characters with any amount of potential.

After potential for the character is selected, a name is assigned for it, and bonus stats received from potential are distributed. Next comes the status screen for the created character, which serves as the final confirmation screen. Press psx: S to cycle through the character's stat pages, psx: C to cancel creation, or psx: X to go ahead and create it.

Coincidentally, all characters created this way start at Lv1 with no equipment. In addition, the created character becomes the pupil of whoever chose to Create a New Character.

Reincarnation
To Reincarnate a character, select the "Reincarnate" option and prepare to pay the extra 100 mana price in addition to the standard character creation cost. The process of reincarnating a character can easily be related to creating a character. The main difference is that instead of creating a separate character, the selected character instead re-creates itself. Excluding Special Classes, who can only reincarnate into themselves, all characters can reincarnate into any available monster or human on any available tier.

While levels, stats, and mana amounts are reset (although stats can be affected by a minor degree if a character reincarnates to a different class), weapon skill levels, equipment, special moves, and special move levels are kept. The main appeal of reincarnating is giving certain classes spells they wouldn't normally have, or advancing a character onto a higher tier of its class.

During reincarnation, weapon skill levels and Special levels will be lowered, the amount depending upon the skill level select. The amount lost is exemplified in the "Inheritance Rate" statistic under each potential choice. Genius potential has a 95% inheritance rate, meaning 5% will be lost upon reincarnation.

Reincarnation into a Prinny is a separate selection, costing 200 mana instead of 100 mana, and is essentially the same as standard Reincarnation. The key difference is that all felonies are erased, and the character can only reincarnate as a Prinny-type character. This excludes special classes, who instead have the option "Reincarnate to Atone for Sins" which costs 400 mana instead of 200, and only permits them to reincarnate into themselves.

Unlocking more Classes and Tiers
The requirements for unlocking new human classes depends from one to another (as explained individually in the Human Classes section), but each requires a bill to be passed before any characters of this type can be created.

To unlock new monster characters, simply defeat a monster of the type you want to create in any stage, and they will become available to create under the Create a New Character selection.

To be able to create a Tier 2, simply level up a Tier 1 character to a specified point (ranges from one class to another), and the next-highest tier will become available. To unlock a Tier 3, level up a Tier 2, and so forth. Higher tiers means better weapon masteries, aptitude, and base stats, but they also require more mana to create than lower tiers.

Special Classes only have a single tier.

Other
To delete a character, simply choose the character you want to delete and select "Delete this Character" from the Dark Assembly menu. Make sure it isn't carrying any equipment you want to keep. To rename the character, do the same to delete it, but choose "Change the Name of this Character" instead of delete this character.

Special Classes cannot be renamed or deleted.

Bill Proposals
Bill Proposals are the secondary function of the Dark Assembly, and can help (or potentially hurt) you in various ways. To activate them, select a character in the Dark Assembly menu, and then select the bill you wish to pass with that character. Some characters can pass bills that others cannot, and some bills only affect whoever passed it. Bills will not appear in the selection unless the chosen character has enough mana to request them to the Dark Assembly. Below is a list of all bills you can propose to the Dark Assembly, their mana cost, what they do, and any other important details.

Aside from Character-type bills, Improvement-type bills, "More Expensive Stuff, or "Less Expensive Stuff", all passed bills are reset with the start of a new cycle.

Senatorial Bills
By having Adell pass the "I want to become a Senator!" bill, a new option to "Attend a Dark Assembly" becomes available. This allows an entire new range of proposals, but now there is no mana cost, and you have a stronger say in whether or not the bills pass. Unlike normal proposals, you cannot see the chance of approval beforehand.

As a Senator, you can extort whoever is proposing the bill to give you bribes. You can choose any item from their selection, but they are less likely to give you more valuable items. To increase your amount of chances to obtain items, pass the "I want a stronger voice!" bill.

Below is a list of Senatorial bills, who proposed them, their requirements, and their function.

Senators
There are seven different types of senators, divided into six parties and a separate group of "Legendary Senators". The titles of the six main parties imply who would be found in that party, i.e., only Wood Golems would be found in the Wood Golem Party. If you get one member of a party to like you, the rest of that party will like you a little more as well (and thus be more willing to vote for your cause), but members of the opposing party will like you a little less.

Because of the opposing parties factor, it's best to generally stick with one side or the other in each grouping of weak, normal, and high voting power. Petite Orcs are more reliable than Ghosts, Holy Dragons don't accept bribes so you're better off with Mothmen, and Baciels make too many mistakes when compared to Wood Golems.

The higher tiers of parties are likely to have stronger; Wood Golems and Baciels are the only ones to have a Lv700 Senator. So on a particular bill, if you're looking to only bribe off one party, and take down the rest, you're usually better off going with Wood Golems. But the weakest Wood Golems are still weaker than the strongest Mothmen, so it's best if you take the time to compare each present party's attendees and stats.

Legendary Senators
Aside from the six parties, there are four Legendary Senators who boast a high voting power. Their voting power seems to vary on appearance, and can range from 200 to 700. Each one is a rather rare occurrence, and more than one never appears at once. A legendary's level is usually, if not always, 1000.
 * Legendary Senate Venus is an Archer. She forces those around her to vote the same as her, regardless of their decisions beforehand.
 * Legendary Senate Morpheus is a Red Skull. He casts a sleeping spell on all members of any party present that opposes his decision, and cancels out their votes.
 * Legendary Senate Ares is a Heavy Knight. He knocks all senators on either his left or right side before making a vote, canceling out their decisions.
 * Legendary Senate Tengan is a Geomancer. He asks for a specific type of item before the bribing process begins.  If you give him the type of item he requests, he'll be sure to vote Aye.  If you don't give him an item he wants, Tengan will vote Nay, despite what any other indicators may suggest.