Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (サミュエル＝リデル＝マクレガー＝メイザース), primarily referred to as Mathers (メイザース), is a posthumous character introduced in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index.

He was a Magician and one of the three founders of the Golden Dawn, and was one of the mentors of Aleister Crowley, whom he personally invited into the cabal. After Aleister sought to destroy all magic, he would become Aleister's enemy and was later struck down by him following the Battle of Blythe Road. Though defeated, Mathers' actions would have a major influence on the events of the Toaru series.

Appearance
Mathers wears a brightly-colored old Scottish military uniform (possibly a cavalry uniform) with a pointed witch's hat, a dark yellow-brown scarf and a thick cloak on top of it. His uniform includes a red tartan kilt, a blue/grey coat with yellow lining, a green tartan sash, a white and blue undercoat, a white and grey waist belt, and a white shoulder belt and buckle. His hat is described as worn-out and it has a decorative silver star, commonly found in the attire of the Golden Dawn's members, dangling from the right side of its brim.

Personality
Described as a charismatic eccentric, Mathers was devoted to magical research and the pursuit of his goals, never holding down a worldly job. Whilst Westcott advocated traditions and the need to compromise, Mathers expressed a desire to progress even if it meant entering areas considered heretical and taboo at the time. Mathers in particular wanted his name to be the one associated with the products of the Golden Dawn's research and the work kit which they hoped to produce, leaving his mark on history. In order to achieve his desire, he made efforts to overwrite the pieces created by the other members with his own.

Despite speaking of the work kit he desired to make as one which master and apprentice could use equally and aiming to break the master-apprentice learning system, Mathers was an authoritarian who looked down on others from a special position reserved only for himself and made use of his apprentices in order to further his own success.

Mathers also styled himself as a and sought to restore the, to an extent which troubled some of his fellow cabal members.

Mathers was described as speaking with an aloof tone, and with hints of a Scottish accent.

Golden Age
In the latter half of the 19th century, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers founded the Golden Dawn together with William Wynn Westcott (whom invited him to help in the founding ) and.

With Woodman retiring due to old age, control of the growing cabal was left between Mathers and Westcott. The two had conflicting views on how the cabal and magic should proceed, as the Golden Dawn worked towards the ultimate goal of discovering a unified theory to explain the truths of the world and constructing a magical work kit that brought endless possibilities for magicians. Being of an older age, Westcott advocated tradition and saw a need to compromise, while Mathers wished to see progress, even if it meant going into areas considered taboo and heretical at the time. Mathers in particular wanted his name to be the one associated with the products of the Golden Dawn's research and sought to overwrite the individual pieces the other members had constructed with ones of his own. Eventually, the Golden Dawn eventually came to be divided between them, though neither faction had complete control over the organization as a whole.

Unlike Westcott, who had a job as a coroner with, Mathers never held down a worldly job and was focused on his magical research. He married Mina, a future painter, as part of his efforts to accomplish his goals. He also sought the revival of the House of Stuart.

Mathers eventually scouted Aleister Crowley and brought him into the cabal, intending to use the young man's talents for his own purposes. Westcott was reluctant to have Aleister enter the cabal and others held similar sentiments. Shortly after Aleister entered the cabal, he performed a summoning ceremony in the presence of the two founders, the results of which reinforced their own sentiments.

Downfall
Mathers' downfall began when Aleister learned about the future death of his daughter from Allan Bennett, which would be the result of the 'sparks' from colliding phases. He also learned about how the Golden Dawn's activities contributed to this phenomena and how the founders were aware but continued regardless, believing that Blythe Road's Treasure would protect them from the negative effects. Aleister subsequently decided to destroy the cabal in an attempt to change the fate of his daughter, wielding a curse that would doom its victims to either die or live a life devoid of success.

Aleister launched an attack on Mathers and a magical battle ensued, with both sides being evenly matched. Angered by Aleister's rebellion, Mathers called him a fool for not sticking with him to receive the scraps of his success and argued that Aleister could avoid his daughter's death by simply not having one to begin with. Aleister responded by questioning Mathers' own reasons for marrying Mina and his look enraged Mathers further, leading him to display his authoritarian traits. The battle then ended as Mathers' reinforcements arrived. Aleister retreated, but he had achieved his real objective; obtaining a sample of Mathers' blood.

After the battle, Mathers learned that Aleister had occupied 36 Blythe Road, the Golden Dawn's most important ceremonial ground and armory, supposedly on his orders. Contacting Aleister via Automatic Writing, Mathers was informed that Aleister had used his blood to produce a forged document, in order make to the Westcott faction believe that Mathers ordered Aleister to occupy Blythe Road. Not long afterwards, a furious Westcott confronted Mathers at his headquarters, together with magicians from his faction. Mathers claimed that the document was forged and it was solely Aleister's doing, but couldn't say that the document was forged with the same method which Westcott used to forge a letter from Anna Sprengel, as Westcott was in front of his subordinates and wasn't in a position to openly accept it as doing so would compromise his own position.

A war subsequently broke out between the Mathers and Westcott factions of the Golden Dawn. While battles raged in the darkness of London, Aleister Crowley took advantage to attack members of both sides and plant evidence pointing to the other side. As the war escalated, further opportunities arose and eventually an opening emerged for Aleister to take out the founders. Mathers was present when Westcott was attacked and struck down by Aleister using Blythe Road's Treasure, an arrow made of a severed hand bearing Imagine Breaker. Aleister then turned his attention to Mathers and after Mathers argued that he could have remade his daughter as many times as necessary, threw the arrow at him. Mathers managed to repel the arrow, at the cost of his arm and many of his symbolic weapons, and it was destroyed. However in focusing on protecting himself from the arrow, he made the fatal mistake of not paying attention to his real enemy, Aleister, who struck the self-styled highlander down with a claymore manifested through Spiritual Tripping, and with it brought his curse upon him. Mathers managed to set off a few more explosions but ultimately Aleister was the one left standing.

Legacy
Mathers' desire to have his name attached to the products of the Golden Dawn's research and leave his mark on history was snuffed out before it could be achieved. The Golden Dawn splintered and declined, with all attempts to recreate it ultimately failing, never producing the work kit that Mathers desired. A few years after the cabal's collapse, Aleister compiled theories derived from his contact with Aiwass, which were sensational enough to blow away the foundational theories of the Golden Dawn devised by Westcott and the new theories Mathers hoped to create by hijacking them. Though Mathers' name would likely come up if a random magician was asked to name ten famous people, his name was eclipsed by that of Aleister Crowley, who was judged to have produced most of the modern magic which continued to the present day.

Although Mathers didn't leave the mark on history he had intended, he did leave another hidden legacy behind which would greatly influence the course of events in the century afterwards. Prior to his defeat, he summoned the demon Coronzon and gave it a single command; to pretend to have been summoned by Aleister Crowley and then guide him to ruin. Bound to follow the contract even after the death of its summoner, Coronzon appeared to Aleister during his attempt at crossing the abyss in Africa, pretending to have been summoned by him, breaking through his attempts to bind it but ultimately failing to take his body and being driven off. Coronzon subsequently travelled to England (and claimed to have possessed Aleister's second daughter, Lola - though this was later revealed to be a lie). Taking the name of the Stuart dynasty Mathers hoped to revive for its alias, Coronzon secretly manipulated events, in order to fulfill its contract and free itself from its ties to Mathers, as the Archbishop of Necessarius.

His remains were supposedly buried in the graveyard of Westminster Abbey, though this was actually a decoy and he was actually buried in the graveyard of Edinburgh Castle, concealed by an anonymization barrier. At some point after his death, Mathers was reproduced along with other members of the Golden Dawn by Coronzon, through the application of Tarot-based grimoires, as part of her anti-Crowley countermeasures.

St. Germain Arc
According to Othinus, if one were to ask a random magician to name ten famous people, Mathers's name would come up alongside Rosenkreuz and St. Germain.

World Rejecter Arc
Nephthys mentions that, alongside Yeats and Crowley, Mathers was one of the biggest names of the Golden Dawn cabal.

Aleister Crowley Arc
During Kamijou Touma's ascent through the Windowless Building, he was shown a series of visions detailing Aleister Crowley, which showed the role Mathers played during those events. After Touma's battle with Aleister himself, Mathers' summoning of Coronzon was revealed to Aleister as the demon attacked him to complete its contract and sever its ties to Mathers.

Coronzon Arc
While Coronzon was temporarily sealed in Academy City, Aleister sought Mathers' remains, said to be buried in the graveyard of Westminster Abbey, in order to utilize his connection to the demon. However when Aleister exhumed the grave, he found that the body inside was not Mathers. Immediately afterwards, he was confronted by Mathers himself, who had apparently somehow survived, together with other members of the Golden Dawn.

It was later revealed that this Mathers and the Golden Dawn was actually a Tarot-based grimoire reconstruction, created by Coronzon as an anti-Crowley measure.

After eventually defeating the reconstructions and reaching Edinburgh Castle, Aleister attempted to use the real Mathers' corpse to save his daughter from Coronzon, but his group learnt too late that Coronzon's possession of his daughter was actually a deception by the demon. After stabbing Aleister, Coronzon took advantage of the opening and burnt Mathers' corpse so it couldn't be used against her again.

Abilities
Mathers was a skilled and powerful Magician as one of the Three Founders of the Golden Dawn, who made use of the style of magic which would come to be known as the Golden-style.

He was capable of summoning and binding demons to contracts, having summoned Coronzon and given it the order to bring Aleister Crowley to ruin, a contract which would persist after his death. He was also capable of using Automatic Writing, and Astral Projection. He is also capable of using a communication method resembling astral projection but actually a more primitive echo, intended to locate an individual when they respond.

Mathers was also a talent writer and translator. Additionally, he was competent in handling original grimoires. With these skills, he translated and converted various grimoires, whose original forms are incomprehensible and shattered reader's souls with their toxic knowledge, into a simpler form which anyone could read. Among the grimoires he translated were ', ' and . This work would lead to a Kabbalah-centric magical culture spreading across Europe. Aside from grimoires, he also translated non-magical works, such as a French military manual. He was skilled in handling the Tarot, with his reproduction being able to rearrange the numbers of the Major Arcana composing his body with Mathers' own interpretations to escape Coronzon's control. It was said that no magician was better than Mathers in the field of text.

Symbolic Weapons
Mathers' primary weapons are his four Symbolic Weapons (象徴武器 (シンボリックウェポン) ) representing the four elements; a red wand (Fire), a blue cup (Water), a yellow dagger (Wind) and a green disc (Earth). Floating around Mathers, they allow him to control all things on the material level and denote any aspect of the world through the manipulation of the four basic elements. These Symbolic Weapons are ordinary, fundamental items which any modern magician might carry and use, but they only display their full potential in the hands of someone such as Mathers.

When using an element, Mathers speaks the of the element (Hot (温) or Cold (寒), and Dry (乾) or Wet (湿)), sometimes followed by the phrase "(Element), reveal thy nature before me" (e.g. "Hot and dry. Fire, reveal thy nature before me"). When using two elements together, Mathers states the qualities of the first element then the second (e.g. for a combination of Earth and Water, "Cold and dry then cold and wet." (寒にして乾、続けて寒にして湿).

Mathers' set of Symbolic Weapons fly around him by themselves and automatically change their arrangement depending on his requirements, sometimes clanging together like musical instruments. Mathers sometimes takes one or two of the weapons in hand, such as the fire wand and the water cup.

The Symbolic Weapons confer a degree of automatic protection to Mathers even without being commanded. Their defenses were sufficient to protect the reproduced Mathers from an Academy City orbital laser, though Accelerator reflecting and focusing the beam back at him at double power exceeded its threshold and deflected the dagger away, causing the protection to drop and Mathers to start to take damage from the beam. The defenses provided by the Symbolic Weapons were also capable of withstanding a Liquid Proof Railgun shot, but were breached by the second shot of Aleister's Babalon-based spell fired from the Anti-Art Attachment during a brief opening after Mathers intercepted him mid-dive with Belzébuth.

Effects produced by the reproduced Mathers through his Symbolic Weapons included:

As noted by Kamijou Touma, Mathers' attacks are generally projectiles and ranged attacks.

Belzébuth
One of Mathers' more feared spells is his invocation of Hae no ō (Beruzebyūto) (蠅の王 (ベルゼビュート) ), the lord of flies and a high-ranking demon born from decay. Mathers uses the spell through the elements of Earth and Water ("Cold and dry then cold and wet.").

As the blue cup and green disc dance around, there is a chain reaction of small noises, like waves crashing and receding. Small, hard peas are scattered at Mathers' feet. Mathers then speaks the following incantation: "The blessing of the earth becomes decay. Come forth and spread, lord of demons born from the decay of all that is". As he does so, the dried peas quickly grow dark and discolored, wriggling and spitting out sticky strings which connect together. Mathers then unleashes it with the following words: "Thy name is Belzébuth. Purge the insolent ones who stand before me". The scattered peas linked together form a sticky, black, rotting object, then link together the name of wicked power with the name of the sacrifice. A bunch of black strings bursts from the target's chest, looking like a woman's long black hair soaked in a slimy drain. The unclean strings cover the target's heart, arteries, veins and everything inside the ribs, spreading pathogens and contamination from the heart outwards.

It is not meant to kill instantly, but is intended to break a target's spirit with fear before their body succumbs to the contamination. In the time of the Golden Dawn, Mathers used this spell to purge traitors to his faction and the fear of Belzébuth to keep his followers in line. However this fear also contributed to the cabal's downfall, due to infighting in Mathers' faction from blame.

Belzébuth (or Beelzebub) is a demon derived from and in modern times is commonly seen as holding the number two spot among the demons of hell. One sixteenth century demon researcher placed it as the ruler of hell with as something like an opposition leader. Due to this general high rank, Belzébuth has an advantage when intervening against magic involving entities within the same category, demons who stand opposite angels, even ones who are far removed from the common examples (e.g. Satan and Lucifer), such as the.

This curse uses two names; that of the powerful demon lord and that of the target. The black threads form then link the demon's name to the target's name, so in order to stop the curse, they have to be destroyed along with their illusionary foothold before the two names can be connected. If Belzébuth's powerful name is linked to the target, the contamination will reach them.

Mathers can skip the incantation, going straight from the elemental qualities to Belzébuth's name, though it isn't clear what effect this has on the spell.

Other
In reference to the incident involving and Mathers' anger towards her, the name of - was mentioned alongside Belzébuth as being ineffective in dealing with that case. The effects of Mathers' spell involving this syncretized figure are unknown.

During the reproduced Mathers' final battle with Aleister Crowley, in which both made use of magic derived from Christianity and the Son of God (with Mathers deliberately choosing to match the format used by his opponent, as if to say he'll defeat them with nothing but skill and choosing an identical weapon), he showed great competency in the improvisation and usage of such spells, using the following in succession:
 * INRI-based Enhancement: In response to Aleister's method of using the linked to the Son of God to build his body up to a higher level, Mathers came up with his own method off the top of his head, based on  (short in Latin for Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum), the four letters said to be carved into the original cross.
 * Archangel Summoning: Mathers used a spell to manifest the four archangels connected to the elements, based on the Son of God being blessed with oil as well as the ideas that it wasn't unusual to see angels before him and that they would naturally descend to guard him. As he completed an incantation, his Symbolic Weapons came apart and four winged angels appeared - the archangels of fire (Michael), water (Gabriel), wind (Uriel) and earth (Raphael). Similar to the elemental Symbolic Weapons and the four elements they represent, a harmony and connection exists between the four archangels summoned in this way, such that Aleister's banishment of Uriel ended up dragging the others down with it.
 * When Aleister banished Uriel with a spell derived from the angel's excommunication from canon by, dragging the other archangels with it and sending hellfire towards Mathers, he redirected the flames back against Aleister in the form of a pig, based on the where the Son of God exorcised a  from a man and cast them into a herd of swine with a point of his finger. After Mathers used his incantation, the flames of hell were twisted and gathered in the shape of an incandescent bronze pig which then charged at Aleister. When stabbed by her, it burst and spewed flames in all directions, possibly rivalling a nuclear weapon in pure firepower, but it was neutralized through Aleister's usage of the Qliphoth.

Design Evolution
According to Haimura Kiyotaka, Mathers was one of the most difficult characters in the series to design. He was originally planned to feature in an illustration at the end of Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 20, however it was dropped and his design was still in development when the volume was completed and released.

In the final iterations of Mathers' design, Haimura added elements from the Golden Dawn-era designs of Aleister Crowley and Mina Mathers. In his notes accompanying this version of Mathers' design, Haimura remarked on how a cool villain (Vincent Volaju) from the Cowboy Bebop movie wore a similar attire (briefly, a witch's hat with his usual coat) for Halloween.

Quotes

 * (To Aleister Crowley, after being attacked and counter-questioned, with reinforcements arriving) "“I said don’t give me that look! I am the leader of the Golden cabal!! A cabal does not just refer to the individual magicians. If one of us rebels, the group will crush them. Aleister, you should have declared victory only once you were in a position to have the group do your bidding! Like I am here!!"..."My reinforcements are unlimited. All magicians must obey the cabal’s decisions. As long as I stand at the top, anyway. It’s time you learned what a hunted fox feels like, rebel. The primary reason you lost was your inability to stop your battle from being rewritten with the word ‘rebellion’!!"
 * (To Aleister Crowley, just before being struck down) "Do you find it that hard to accept the death and ruin of a single person? All lives are born and vanish! Most leave nothing behind and are no more than common weeds that must force themselves to believe they are happy and successful!! You could have redone it. Even as you lamented the daughter who was rejected by the friction between phases and sparks of the world, you could have created a new life! Yes, yes! That’s all it was! You could have remade her as many times as necessary!!"

Trivia

 * The real Mathers co-founded the together with  and . Following Woodman's death in 1891, Mathers became leader of the Golden Dawn but was expelled from the order in April 1900, due to dissatisfaction with his leadership and his developing association with Aleister Crowley, whom he promoted against the London officials' decision. A few years later, he founded the successor organization,, which he led until his death in 1918.
 * In addition to his Symbolic Weapons, Mathers also has the colors associated with the four elements in his attire; a red kilt, blue coat, a dark yellow scarf and green sash.
 * Kamachi Kazuma used the French Belzébuth rather than the more common for Mathers' demonic spell to reflect his, similar to the case with his choice of name for Othinus.