Time passed as the world outside the settlements moved on, with decades passing once again. Although within the settlement, that passage of time was acknowledged in the same way. They were just living in a constant present, where the past was the past, and the future would be the future. What year it was no longer truly mattered to them anymore, as it was just what day of the week it was, along with the month. Other than that, nothing else was that important to them, as they just lived their lives as they always had thus far. This was probably an effect of the desire that Reva himself had, as the Guardian did affect those who were under them after all. The way those roboticized under them acted as a result of how their Guardian was, and their viewpoint on themselves, others, and the world around them. Though those under the current Southern Guardian of Reva were granted a massive amount of freedom that most others, who were roboticized even now, did not have. They were still within the realm of his own preferences and thoughts about things.
They were not aware of these effects on themselves, however, as it was something they were not supposed to be consciously aware of after all. This notion of how they were under the ultimate control, the control of their Guardian, was a result of the process that just made them loyal to them, regardless of their own original thoughts or feelings. The only part of them that was aware of this would be their robotic side, which was the part of them that existed based only on their programming and what they should be. Reva's roboticized were different than the normal ones should have been, since he did not really care about controlling them beyond not revealing themselves to anyone unnecessarily, at least. So their human self were still fully intact as the main persona along with their programming, rather than being under it.
The normal way is that those under a Guardian are controlled by them, with their robotic self being the main persona and their original selves being a facsimile of themselves. It truly did not exist anymore, as it was now just merely a means to blend in with humans and/or trick those who were once close to them. Getting them to think that there was a chance to bring them back, even in their current state, which would not be possible. What they considered their original self was no longer such, thanks to the roboticization process, ensuring that the robotic persona was the true self now. Thus, there would be no awakening of their true human self that some would always cling to when it came to those who have become automatons.
Those who were under them were influenced by their Guardian. The Guardians themselves were similarly influenced by the Mecha Lord. They were not aware of this in a similar way as well, since their own human personas were a result of how the Mecha Lord themselves were. Thus the reasoning behind why Reva chose to be the Southern Guardian all those years ago. He was an exception to the rules in many ways. Thus, there were many norms that he was able to escape from as a result of this being the case, as result of this situation. So the reasoning being that the Southern Guardian, being viewed as always the weakest of the four Guardians, was mostly left to their own devices, never really an issue to the other four. This is the case for both the Southern Guardian and the Hero as well. Also, once again extending to the human lands that were the corresponding equivalent to the Southern Guardian as well. Having some last numerous cycles because they were not being considered as worth by any of the other four Guardians. The Southern Hero, being the weakest hero, was not left to their own devices normally, thus they were part of the group that fought with one of the others and/or beat the Mecha Lord themselves. Southern Guardians of the past did not normally fall because of a hero, but because of their own actions in how they dealt with Directors.
Directors themselves were a bigger threat to Southern Guardian than their corresponding hero ever was. That being the case, because once they took the Director in, they were normally doing so to have them take over what was originally their lands. Once they had things figured out for a while, however, they always would for some reason forget to finish the job for some reason. As one member of the family would always escape, and then rise up to take back their ancestral lands for humanity. The more Directors they had, the more land they added, but the more targets that were placed on their backs as a result. This was another reason why Reva picked the Southern Guardian to be. The others had normally had Directors in their groups as members of the Hero's party, as for many of them, that was how things just were. The Hero was gather them up to be a part of their party, and then they would become their subordinate in the following cycle, where they were now a Guardian or the Mecha Lord. It was not something that was set in stone, which is why Hero and Director were two different roles. They were not interchangeable; however, what their roles and purposes within the system did however overlap with each other, which is why many times they were the same.
Reva, as a result of this, and from the result of constant trial and error, is how he acquired all this knowledge and the mindset he currently has. As he did not have the goal of freeing humanity and even automatons from the endless cycle they were trapped in. He just considered himself an anomaly that was trapped within the system himself, and rather than fighting against the flow as he had actually done. He just decided to live within his own niche of it from what he saw as a possible island within that flow. The only one that he had known was rather than being a struggler who just keeps on struggling in the constant flow of the system. He just built himself this one fixed point within it, not exactly giving up the struggle, but more so alternating it to fit a different purpose and goal instead.