Rosenthal Family

The Rosenthal Family (ローゼンタール家) are a line of necromancers, who have sought to create the perfect golem for over 400 years.

Etymology
is a surname of German and Ashkenazi Jewish origin, meaning "valley of roses".

Principles
The Rosenthal Family is a line of necromancers who have spent over 400 years developing techniques of creating golems from corpses in order to create the perfect golem.

As opposed to rock dolls only capable of carrying out simple commands, the Rosenthals make use of a method devised by their ancestor Obed, which involves placing an artificial soul into a corpse, allowing them to use a human brain and greatly increasing their intelligence. These techniques were further developed through subsequent generations with the 4th generation head Isaac incorporating the Taoist Hopping Zombie Spell into what would become the Rosenthal-style (ローゼンタール流), and the 5th generation head Nathan, who developed artificial souls with greatly increased abilities.

The greatest desire of the Rosenthal Family was the creation of the perfect golem (完全なるゴレム), one with a perfect soul and a perfect body - a god. The family sought this goal for 23 generations, with successors being raised and trained in order to pursue it, developing the family's techniques as they did so, and to pass on their knowledge and goal to their descendants.

One of the Rosenthals' customs is that when a student pledges themselves to a teacher, they present a piece of red clothing or gear in their possession, representing an offering of flesh and blood to their master. In the case of a malleable or foldable piece, they can add depth and form to deepen the significance of the blood. In Esther Rosenthal's case when she asked Accelerator to become her teacher in the anime, she offered an inflated piece of red clothing.

Rosenthal-style Necromancy
Rosenthal-style Necromancy (ローゼンタール流 死霊術(ネクロマンシー)) is a mixed style with an initial foundation based on Kabbalah, having originally developed from heretical golem research, combined with elements from Taoism, such as the Hopping Zombie Spell, which were discovered and integrated during the family's time in the East. Derived from these origins, the majority of the known Rosenthal-style spells utilize paper charms with magic circles and/or symbols inscribed on them.

The core of Rosenthal-style Necromancy is a method of manipulating dead bodies by inserting artificial souls into them,  essentially creating a corpse golem. Unlike traditional golems, which are typically rock or mud dolls only capable of following simple commands, this technique utilizes the human brain in order to create a more intelligent servant. Due to its nature, it was considered a heretical technique from when it was first devised and resulted in its creator's exile from his homeland.

In order to use this technique, the user requires an artificial soul,    created through an application of the Sephiroth and stored on a paper charm,  and a dead body,     preferably one which hasn't decayed to the extent that the operation of the brain and body would be impaired. Although the method is primarily used with human corpses, it is possible to use it on the corpses of other animals, though without a human brain it won't result in the same level of intelligence.

The user must then connect the charm to the corpse, either by placing the charm on the corpse's chest and then performing a full ritual, or in a cruder manner by stuffing the charm into an opening such as the corpse's mouth. A preliminary check on the body's condition can be carried out using the charm before proceeding with the rest of the connection process. With the charm containing the artificial soul placed onto or into the dead body, the user "reactivates" the body and calls in the wandering residual information. The deceased's "residual thoughts" (残留思念) are used as a key code in order to slip the artificial soul into the body. At the same time, a magic circle is expanded around the corpse.

Once the artificial soul has been slipped in and properly connected to the body, the charm disappears in the body if it was placed onto the body rather than inserted through an opening, and the user can then have the artificial soul manipulate the corpse. This usually involves having it fully animate the corpse,   but other tasks can be performed, such as utilizing specific functions of the brain or body through partial animation,   closing a corpse's spiritual circuit if it was left open (such as might be the case after an earlier misuse of necromancy) and carrying out a ritual to properly lay the dead to rest.

Having animated the corpse, the artificial soul will use the body as its own, following its programming and its master's commands, until it is disconnected from the body.

While gathering a corpse's residual thoughts to use as a key to slip in an artificial soul, the residual memory can take form outside of the corpse in the shape of a floating brain. If someone touches it, as in the case of Accelerator with Hitokawa Hasami, the memories of the deceased flood into that person's mind. If not controlled, the residual thoughts can take a dangerous form which people sometimes call ghosts (specifically jibakurei (地縛霊)). If the technique is misused, a corpse's spiritual circuit can be left open, such as in the case of Hitokawa Hasami after being using in the Prototype Coffin with a low-level spiritual charm, which might have resulted in the corpse crawling back even if buried and might prevent the deceased from passing through the gates of Heaven if not fixed.

Certain uses of Rosenthal-style Necromancy seem to be able to mitigate the effects of decay on the host corpses. In the case of Hishigata Hirumi's possession by Taowu, one of the 5th generation's Evil Spirits of the Numbers, there were minimal visual signs of decay at least a month after death. On the other hand, 4th generation head Isaac's experiments at the Li household exhibited noticeable decay (though the exact time between murder and reanimation isn't known). Hitokawa Hasami's corpse had a pallid complexion three days after death and being used with a low-level charm in the Prototype Coffin, with a short time in the morgue after being released but didn't develop any further visual signs. After being reanimated with Huotou, the body didn't develop any further visual signs of decay for the shown duration of the possession (though this was over a short time frame).

Artificial Souls
The Rosenthal Family make use of artificial souls, also referred to as false souls (偽りの魄), which are stored in charms and inserted into corpses to animate them.

Among these are four artificial souls with greatly increased abilities, created by the 5th generation head Nathan; Taowu (檮杌), Taotie (饕餮), Hundun (混沌) and Qiong Qi (窮奇). These four, sometimes referred to as the Evil Spirits of the Numbers (ナンバーズの悪霊), are capable of producing superhuman strength when their charm is attached to a corpse. One of these, Taowu, houses the will of Isaac, whose soul Nathan transferred into Taowu while he was on his deathbed.

Another one of the artificial souls used by the Rosenthal family is the Huotou (禍斗), also referred to as the Rosenthal Third Number (薔薇渓谷家参式(ローゼンタール サードナンバー)).

A countermeasure to the artificial souls, wielded by the current head Esther Rosenthal, is a dagger known as Emperor Shun's Blade (舜帝の剣), which is meant to neutralize them on striking their charm.

Background
Over 400 years before the present, having tested various methods of creating golems, the Rosenthal ancestor Obed, devised a method of inserting an artificial soul into a corpse to create a golem with greatly increased intelligence. The of his homeland wouldn't permit this and drove Obed away from his home as a heretic.

Ending up in the East, Obed and his successors would continue to develop their techniques, with the 4th generation head Isaac, incorporating the Hopping Zombie Spell and the 5th generation Nathan creating four artificial souls with increased abilities; Taowu, Taotie, Hundun and Qiongqi. Before Isaac died from disease, Nathan transferred his soul into the Taowu, imprinting it on its artificial soul. The Rosenthal style would continue to develop over the subsequent 19 generations but their ultimate goal of creating the perfect golem continued to elude them.

After Taowu was activated and possessed Hirumi when 23th generation head Esther attempted to resurrect her following her death, it was contacted by a self-proclaimed demon, who conveyed a way to achieve the Rosenthal Family's desire, using a method derived from how the human soul is said to slowly evolve and reach Keter through the process of experiencing 10000 deaths. By converting the memories of death (死の記憶) into a special formula and adding it to the sephiroth constructing the artificial soul, engraving the proof of death into the soul 10000 times, their soul would also reach Keter. The memories of death are normally erased from the physical world at death, however the memories of 10031 deaths are present in Academy City, stored within the Misaka Network.

As a result of losing her friend twice, Esther realized that they should not toy with death and abandoned the desire of the Rosenthal Family.

Necromancer Arc
Manipulating Hishigata and DA through the Taowu-possessed Hirumi, Isaac attempted to obtain the memories of death from the Misaka Network, with Esther attempting to stop them, unaware that Isaac's will was within the Taowu. He was eventually able to obtain the memories via Misaka 10046 and had the formula inserted into the Taowu's artificial soul. He then began creating the 'perfect body' to house the 'perfect soul', despite Esther's pleas to stop.

Members

 * Obed Rosenthal (ancestor/founder)
 * Isaac Rosenthal (4th head)
 * Nathan Rosenthal (5th head)
 * Esther Rosenthal (current head, 23rd generation)

Trivia

 * Taowu, Qiong Qi, Hundun, and Taotie are mythical Chinese creatures mentioned in the , also referred to as the Four Fiends or Four Evils (Si Xiong), who were banished by.
 * A Huotou is a legendary creature in Southern Chinese folkore, described as a dog-shaped monster that eats feces and blows fire.
 * It should be noted that Obed, Isaac and Nathan have yet to be referred to by their full names in the manga, by characters or narrative, being referred to only by their given names. However it is presumed that the names used in this article and their character articles are almost certainly correct, given their positions as members and heads of the Rosenthal family.
 * Given that magicians in the Toaru series tend to be individualistic in nature, magicians like the Rosenthal Family who inherit and work to achieve a single objective from generation to generation down a bloodline are somewhat unusual.