Gremlin (Norse)

GREMLIN (グレムリン) is a magic organization formed after the events of World War III, and is led by One-Eyed Othinus the Magic God. The organization is unusually pragmatic, despite having its origins from the magic side, as they specifically use both science and magic to achieve their goals. With their actions in the magic side and encroachment of the science, they are the primary antagonistic organization of Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index.

Near the end of Magic God Othinus Arc, after the surviving members of GREMLIN gathered in Egeskov Castle to take vengeance on Othinus for leaving them to run away with Kamijou Touma, they are all defeated by Thor. With this, the later depowering of Othinus, and the earlier order by Vasilisa to crush any GREMLIN member found in Russia, it is likely that GREMLIN has been dissolved as an organization.

Etymology
A is a type of fairy that was believed to cause malfunctions in machinery and make weapons such as airplanes unusable. That was a new generation of the occult that had only started being passed down by humans once the concept of machines had been created. It was a symbol of one side of the world eating into the other side. In World War III the Science side won and increased its power, to counteract this, GREMLIN was born, a type of occult that would devour it.

Background
The exact time that the organization is formed is unknown, but the reason it was created was due to the events of World War III that Fiamma of the Right created. They are an ideology-based group, whose tenets were formed out of frustration directed toward Academy City and the science side who won the war, despite the fact that they did not choose Fiamma of the Right and his methods as representatives of the whole of the magic side.

During the events of the of World War III, the members were either watching or taking part in the battle to see if Academy City would survive it. However, they did not want to have anything to do with World War III. Moreover, they did not have anything to gain from helping Fiamma of the Right, as even if he succeeded, his method would not have saved the world as he thought it would. Since the opposite occurred, they did not want Fiamma of the Right, Roman Catholic Church and their Christian Alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church's losses to be forced upon them, and declared their own War with Academy City.

Their existence is later detected by people from Academy City, some of which created a faction known as Freshmen, dedicated to opposing it as Academy City was making no plans in fighting against them. However, GREMLIN also detected its existence and begins studying them as well.

Principles
GREMLIN is similar to many magic cabals, and is an ideological group, or criminal as referred to by Misaka Worst, and is sensitive in having their group's reputation being tarnished for things that they do not do, for example, a bombing. However, unlike the magic cabals that have hundreds or thousands of years of history under their name, GREMLIN is a concentration of the individual dissatisfaction and discontent of the magicians who sensed things heading to a loss during World War III. Moreover, their magic is based off Norse mythology, apparently as a backlash to Fiamma of the Right using Christianity as a basis for his plans as well as him making himself the representative of the magic side in the war. It can be assumed that the reason why Norse Mythology was chosen was because Othinus wanted it to, having her magic based around Norse mythology, as far back as stealing the title from Ollerus.

It has been shown that the group doesn't exclusively use magic but has also take science and technology, such as using balloons to make Radiosonde Castle float, and is exemplified by Kihara Kagun who is one of the organization's science oriented cores that provided assistance when members had to rely on scientific technology to carry out their plans. As an extension to this, it has been shown that members of this organization are trained or possess skills capable of fighting Imagine Breaker, as seen with Cendrillon, and Saronia A. Irivika.

They apparently have no qualms in using other people for their goal, and will discard them after they become unneeded, as what happened with Cendrillon and Saronia A. Irivika.

Finally, the members of GREMLIN are only following Othinus’ orders because they believe that a magic god like her can grant them their desires that they themselves could not achieve on their own, have shown that they are willing to turn on her if Othinus doesn’t pay them back for all their hard work. Similarly, Othinus sees them as nothing more than pawns. As she symbolizes Odin, she also symbolizes his aspect of being the god of betrayal. This is exemplified by her just using the entirety of the organization as decoy in order to make them believe, as well as her enemies, that she can only create the lance of Gungnir through a very complex ritual with a bunch of stringent requirements. And though she could make it on her own, the infinite possibilities that is brought about by her being a Magic God, would make her likely fail if she tried, necessitating in her using GREMLIN for the task of creating Gungnir.

Goals
GREMLIN is controlled by Othinus' power. GREMLIN's purpose is to basically, as stated by Ollerus, is to "grant her selfish desires", whether or not they know the full details, as what Thor, not knowing full well what Othinus wanted to do with Fräulein Kreutune.

The main goal of GREMLIN is to thoroughly strengthen Othinus so she can match the giant weight that is Academy City. Moreover, since the Imagine Breaker is a reference point for the world and reverts distortions back to the reference point, is clashes completely with Othinus, who wants to completely distort the world beyond recognition. Already, GREMLIN has sent a message to Touma that they are definitely targeting him, and is stated by Ollerus that they would kill him without hesitation if he gets in their way. Moreover, Othinus herself tried to crush Touma's right hand in order to force it to move on to another container, but to no avail. The main reason why the members of GREMLIN are doing all of this to empower a magic god is because they want her to grant their desires that they themselves are unable to.

Othinus is later able to make the Gungnir on her own and ultimately distort the world with it. However, while putting Kamijou Touma through countless worlds and finally killing him in the end, Othinus realize what she wanted was someone who can understand her, which she found in Kamijou Touma. She choose to restore the world to save Touma and face her end at the hand of the world for all she did.

Finished objectives

 * Create a highly complicated floating fortress known as Radiosonde Castle to threaten the whole world, though most specifically, Academy City, just to get a threatening message towards Kamijou Touma, expecting him to intercept it.
 * Create a furnace for the creation of Gungnir using the energy of the volcanic eruption in the Hawaiian Islands. The volcanic eruption that had occurred in Hawaii has a higher output compared to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Moreover, its energy was extracted and controlled, by Mjölnir.
 * Test whether or not a holistic esper is possible by making an area a battlefield, specifically, Baggage City, and determining if a supernatural phenomenon would occur when the world was greatly distorted.
 * Steal the plans of Gungnir from Brunhild Eiktobel's mind, who has only partially created it.
 * Use a substitute for Fräulein Kreutune, namely the original Kakine Teitoku's organs, which can produce Dark Matter. It can be molded into a doll, and use it to form a holistic esper in Fräulein's stead. It is also a plan by Ollerus, who disguised himself as Thor. The holistic esper creation through Kakine Teitoku's Dark Matter is successful, and was used as a parallel processor alongside magic in order to fill in the holes that magic could not.
 * Distort the world through the use of Gungnir. This was achieved however, not from the complex ritual set-up by GREMLIN but by Othinus becoming a perfect Magic God and using her powers to make it on her own.

Failed objectives

 * Capture Fräulein Kreutune, a being who is untainted by both magic and science, and can survive conventional means of harm, and forcibly modify her brain in order to become a holistic esper. The plan was trumped by the efforts of several people, most notably Kamijou Touma after his plan inadvertently changed Fräulein into something unusable for Othinus' plans. As well as Thor, whose deal with Ollerus, pushed Touma to prevent GREMLIN from obtaining her in the first place.
 * With the holistic esper in place, the being in question will distort the world enough for Marian Slingeneyer to create Gungnir. The lance created through this complex ritual was ultimately interrupted by Ollerus.

Enlistment
It is unknown if Othinus gathers the magicians around her or if the magicians searches her out themselves. However, one case of a person being drawn to the organization is Kihara Kagun after Marian Slingeneyer's persistence.

Naming
As part of their theme of using Norse mythology to reject Fiamma of the Right's Christian basis, core or true members usually have names derived from Norse mythologies and sagas. Names of the core members may have been derived from their accompanying Norse figures, and maybe associated with their magic, as explained with Idol Theory. Most likely, true members take Norse names after joining GREMLIN, as with the case of Kihara Kagun, known as Bersi, and Sigyn.

Hierarchy
Base on Thor's experience, there is apparently no respect to hierarchy of the organization. Probably, the magicians only follow orders directly from Othinus, and may disregard the orders of those who have a higher rank, such as Marian Slingeneyer not paying much attention to Thor's warnings.

Pawns and Peons

 * Cendrillon
 * Saronia A. Irivika
 * A number of unknown artificial Valkyries