Othinus

Othinus (オティヌス) is a character introduced in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index.

She is a Magic God, and was the leader of GREMLIN. Prior to the 10th Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel, she was originally a powerful being who refers to herself as a god, and was the primary antagonist of much of the early Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index. After subjecting Kamijou Touma to much suffering, the both of them later come into a mutual understanding of each other's situation, which later allows for Touma to save her from the destruction that was eating her body. She later becomes 15 centimeters in size with much of her former power gone, virtually harmless, after Touma saves her from killing herself after she believes she didn't deserve to be saved.

Etymology
Her name,, is the Latin name for the  of war, wisdom, magic, poetry, and betrayal among other things, which is also the alternative reading of her name. Her name is derived from the , an account of gods and their relation to the history of the Danes, which tells of Othinus' throne being taken by Ollerus after the former's exile.

With this, the characters of Othinus and Ollerus in the series are an exaggerated reflection of their roles from the Gesta Danorum.

Appearance
She is referred to as One-Eyed Othinus and, similarly to the Othinus of legend, she wears an eye-patch over her right eye which she removed as a sacrifice in order for her to drink from the. It is the way she is dressed that would be later used as the basis for the appearance of Odin in Norse Mythology. Her remaining eye is glittery green and with slit-like iris, though not often the case in illustrations.

She is described as having the external appearance of around a 14 year old girl. She has long, wavy blond hair. She's seen dressed in a revealing outfit, a low-cut neck line that goes down below her navel. She has a long cape, and has a ribbon wrapped around her. Traces of a witch-like design are present, such as the cape and a wide brimmed hat with a pointed tip. Touma had joked that her outfit isn't that different from how people depicted Odin outfit, wearing only pants and a cape.

Personality
Initially, Othinus was depicted as a ruthless and cold-hearted individual who will utilize any means necessary to achieve her goals, regardless of how much destruction and suffering they bring to others. She has no qualms about threatening or harming anyone who inconveniences her in the slightest way, be it an enemy or an ally.

She is very cunning and manipulative, able to fool everyone that knew her that there was only one method in creating Gungnir. As her namesake Odin is also a god of betrayal, it is only fitting that she has no qualms in using and then casting aside her comrades to get what she wants. In the same breath, she was very easily angered when Ollerus called her a lonely person and finds it frustrating when people she's trying to defeat continue to inconvenience her.

Upon acquiring the Lance of Gungnir, she declares her victory and immediately destroys the universe on a whim. Due to being able to create and destroy whatever she desires, she now paints the world as she desires it to be, such as erasing all forms of crime or pain from it simply to make it more appealing rather than for the sake of those living in it. She also seems to treat Touma's continued existence like an amusing game until he actually started to become an inconvenience to her.

She is also both afraid of Imagine Breaker and also afraid to get rid of it, as she is aware of the fact that she can transform the universe into any form she chooses but could also easily end up losing her way back to the original version of it. Because of this, she was ultimately unable to kill Kamijou Touma and resolved to break his will instead.

Othinus desired to return to her original world, which she had previously eliminated with her powers as a magic god. This left her with the fear of losing Imagine Breaker, which could be used as a reference point for that world. Through defeating Touma however, Othinus comes to terms with her lost desire and realized that she only wanted someone to understand her. She puts Touma in the same trapped situation as she was in hopes of gaining that someone. She ultimately decides to restore Touma's reality with Imagine Breaker's reference, and resolves to die as an enemy of the world.

After coming to an understanding with Kamijou Touma and spending time alone with him to recover her lost eye in Denmark, she is shown to be quite open in humoring his personality. However, she doesn't suffer fools lightly and can be quite violent when annoyed by him too much, though this has no effect on Touma as he enjoys it. She acts serious and levelheaded, making her the straight-man to Touma's wise guy. Both Touma and Thor has noted that Othinus likes to explain things.

As a legendary figure and creator of worlds
An unknown number of years and phase shifts ago, Othinus, though she may have had a different name back then, became a Magic God. To do this, she went to Denmark, to the lake where Egeskov Castle will one day stand, and sacrificed her right eye and threw it into the lake as part of an enormous ritual, allowing her to obtain the body of a magic god. And thus, many tales from many cultures told about her power, though some would make her seem like an old man or a vicious god of war, there were implications that she herself would deliberately take forms that would now be recorded in mythology. Othinus later used her power to change the world through shifting its phases. However, she later yearned for her original world, and despite the fact that she could have used the Imagine Breaker to change the world back, her hesitations prevented her from doing so. For there was hope that she could make the world into her original world as she saw in her mind. Moreover, there was a hope for her that she could just bring the world into a new form through phase-shifting and just settle there. Regardless, she suffered for it, and for countless phase shifts she was worn down by the suffering that she felt in each of them, something she would later visit upon Touma. Due to being worn down and the impermanence of the world, she began looking for something that would not change. Specifically, she was looking for someone who can understand her, the only one seemingly constant in the world. Though she didn't know what she wanted herself—that changing the world was but a means to an end. In the end, she settled in the current world, and somehow relinquished her title as Magic God.

During Thor and Touma's battle at the end of the Ichihanaran Festival Arc, Thor mentions Othinus taking extreme measures to gain knowledge such as pulling out one of her eyes, and hanging herself on a tree. This refers to the steps Othinus took to become a Magic God, likely referring to the time before she relinquished being a magic god after settling with the current world as he mentions Othinus sacrificing her eye. The other is a reference to Odin hanging himself on the world tree for nine days and nights, in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds.

Return as a Magic God
Her unease later returned, however, taking back her title as a Magic God, earning the anger of Ollerus, forming an adversarial relationship with the man. In fact, Ollerus would continuously claim that Othinus stole becoming a Magic God from him. This relationship between them extends with his magic. The first implication of Othinus' existence in the series is when Ollerus uses the queer magic, Hliðskjálf, upon Sogiita Gunha. This magic, of course, is named after the high seat of Odin, which allows him to see into all realms. In the , Odin was exiled and Ollerus was chosen to take his place. This can be presumed why Ollerus currently has the Hliðskjálf.

World War III would later spurn her into action even further, as she forms GREMLIN for the purpose of constructing the Lance of Gungnir.

As Othinus is a Magic God in spite of her limitations, she is one of the most powerful beings in the Toaru Majutsu no Index storyline, and as demonstrated later, is able to reshape the world according to her will using the Lance of Gungnir.

Pre-Denmark
Othinus is a Magic God, which makes her a perfect and pure magician that encompasses every possibility. Because of this, since it is every possibility, she has an equal chance at succeeding and failing, making her magic a 50/50 shot. The reason she seeks to craft and wield Gungnir is to control the probabilities of her success and failure, effectively ridding herself of 50/50 restriction, though it is later revealed that she can bypass this by completely failing as a magic god herself. To unify her infinite possibilities, she either needs to become 100% successful at becoming a magic god, hence the reason for the complicated ritual for Gungnir, or 100% failure which she has a hard time of acquiring. After becoming struck by Fiamma of the Right's Turn into a fairy spell, she falls into 100% failure, allowing her to unify the possibilities and becoming a perfect magic god. Despite this, if she is successful in using her powers, she has shown to be extremely powerful. She is able to use pure strength crush Touma's right hand as well as the invisible thing that came forth to attack her with strange ease, rip out Ollerus' (disguised as Thor) arm, dig into the neck of Kakine Teitoku and cow him, and force the Dark Matter-made Holistic esper girl to keep on performing its task. She, as well as Ollerus, is also able to create hundreds of millions of strange explosions. When Othinus and Ollerus fought the explosions were not strong for their own but in such a great number they seemed like twisting the space and time. Both of them have not used a special move, a form of preparation or a magical tool before they started this attack.

Othinus can even deceive others' senses. She used this to make Ollerus believe he stabbed her with his Turn into a fairy spell whereas she was unscathed.

Othinus has a certain form of immortality as she is believed to have lived for thousands of years and possess instantaneous regeneration powers to point where she claims having her body crumble is not enough to kill her. This goes to the extent where she could let one of the arrows fired by her crossbow go right thought her body and completely heal a moment afterwards without any sign of pain or damage at all.

Furthermore, as she is based on the god Odin, she has territory over the dead, which allows her to turn Bersi and other humans into an Einherjar, though the process is unknown. It is likely that she too is the one who created the Artificial Valkyries that attacked Brunhild Eiktobel.

Gungnir
Gungnir (主神の槍 (グングニル) ): The spiritual item desired by the Magic God Othinus in order for her to remake the world. It is the lance of the head Norse god whose handle is made from wood of an ash tree, its sharp tip made of gold and personally carved runes that gives it tremendous power. Apart from the fact that it grants the Magic God 100% success, it is also used as a throwing weapon. It would always hit its target once thrown, could not be shot down or destroyed mid-flight, it would always return to its owner's hands once the target is pierced and it is said that it could destroy the symbols of human power.

Wielding Gungnir gives her the power to destroy the world, but in reality it is revealed that she isn't exactly destroying the world or anything. She creates new Phases and place them over the world so that it would appear as if it had actually changed. Along with the world, she can also alter the point of view and memories of its inhabitants. Also, with the lance, she has a free control over the of humans through a perfected version of her Einherjar spell but it can't apparently affect beings who are both "dead and alive" like the Will of the Whole Misaka Network.

Other

 * Turn into a fairy (妖精化): After seeing Ollerus perform the Turn into a fairy spell, she is easily able to mimic Ollerus' invention and use it effectively against him, bringing a "god" like him into the realm of fairies and being killable. She uses it successfully on Ollerus, destroying the interior of his body. Using the principle of the spell making her into a 100% failure, she is able to still use powerful magic if she does actions that are opposite of her initial impression. Indeed, despite the destruction of Gungnir, she was able to use her tremendous power in order to use the Imagine Breaker as a reference point and return the world back to Touma's original world.
 * The cost of using the spell to make use of the 100% failure however, is that it would wreak havoc on her body, giving her tremendous pain and suffering as well as make her slowly lose her power as a Magic God. Even the Imagine Breaker would not be able to amend its effects.


 * Othinus' Crossbow: A phantom weapon that can simultaneously hold ten arrows in a fan shape. In the legends, it was said to have a frightening destructive power that could exterminate an entire army. When using it, disturbing symbols starts to manifest from Othinus' back as it gathers tremendous power and the black world acts as the crossbow itself. Ten arrows will then rain down on the opponent, though shown to be in different directions, distorting space-time in the process. The spell was only seen after Othinus used the 100% failure aspect of her being a Magic God through the fairy spell. It is unknown if Othinus could use it if she had Gungnir.
 * The spell is likely based on the crossbow of the mysterious old man found in the Gesta Danorum who aided Thuning in his quest against Hadding. Here, the old man uses a crossbow which could accommodate 10 arrows in its string at once against Hadding's men. As Odin often took the form of an old man, it is likely the author equated this old man with that of Odin as a basis for Othinus' spell.


 * Bone Boat (骨船) : A spiritual item in the form of a bone, resembling an animal's leg, with strange writing carved onto its side, normally kept in Othinus's hat. Like the crossbow, it is an item associated with Othinus rather than Odin. It can freely change size and cross the world's oceans in an instant, however rather than moving its users across the world, it moves the world itself around them and later moves moves the entire heavenly body to put the world back in its proper position after they disembark, allowing for things such as timekeeping to remain normal.
 * Its concept is likely taken by the author from a passage in the Gesta Danorum, detailing the cunning magic of Ullr (Ollerus in the text), where it is said that he used a certain bone which he had marked with awful spells that allowed him to cross the seas instead of a vessel. Through this bone, Ullr passed over the waters that barred his way as quickly as rowing. Whether the author mistook Ollerus for Othinus is unclear.

Post-Denmark
While Othinus is unable to use magic on her own in her current state, she can interfere with the spells of others to cause an effect which benefits her. For example, during the events on Christmas Day, she spread surveillance spiritual items made from raven feathers in order to secretly place a effect on top of amateur spells, constructed from knowledge spread by R&C Occultics, allowing her to remotely monitor the situation as those spells were used by others.

She is also capable of taming and riding birds.

Design Evolution
Haimura states that for his first version of Othinus, he had added all sorts of elements based on the keywords "magic god" and "witch". However, he believed that the first try lacked refinement thus continued on with a re-design in the second version. Haimura wanted to give a bit of similarity to Index and Sasha who are in a similar category. But he also handled the lines in the same way as certain other GREMLIN members like Cendrillon and Thor (that is, a composition of flowing lines.)

For Othinus' final design, he touched up the second version. He could not have her butt exposed, so he decided to hide it a bit.

Haimura explains the reasoning for her having so much exposed skin being the idea of "truly strong people do not need excessive equipment." Commenting that Aleister, Aiwass, and Ollerus are similar in that way and the opposite would be Biagio. By exposing her body and casting aside anything to protect her, she is showing that her enemies' attacks and hostility mean nothing to her. Haimura also comments that for those who have read the side-story Kanzaki:SS, might notice something about Gungnir.

Trivia

 * She is the first magic god introduced in the series.
 * According to Kamijou Touma, Othinus's voice is somewhat similar to Leivinia Birdway's voice.
 * Othinus's favorite food is potato.
 * Othinus has the as Marie Spearhead.

Quotes

 * (To Kumokawa Maria, from NT4) "Unlike a certain failure, I am a pure magic god. If that is not enough for you to understand, my words are wasted on you. You should just give up on understanding."
 * (To Ollerus, from NT6) "Distance holds no meaning. What matters is being unseen."
 * (To Kakine, from NT8) "Listen, you piece of scrap. I only expect one thing from you. Just one. Be of use to me. …If you can’t, I’ll carefully remake everything about you until you can and do. It will be like holding a girl’s head down and beating her face into something completely unrecognizable with your fist."
 * (To Fiamma of the Right and Ollerus, ibid): "After coming this far, do you really think you have any chance of fighting back? The two of you were only able to crawl through the dirt because you could not leave the territory of fragile children of man. Kneel before me as you witness history. This is 100% success!!"
 * (from NT8): "These small fights are such a pain. I think I’ll just end the world."
 * (To Touma, from NT9): "No matter how many people surrounded you, none of them were actually looking at you. After seeing your name, your outer shell, and a list of your actions, they decided for themselves what kind of person you must be. That is why their impression of you was so easily manipulated by changing their point of view."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "It didn’t work. I tried it and it didn’t work!! Even with a palette knife to peel away the paint and even when I peeled it away in extremely thin layers, I wasn’t satisfied with the result. There is no longer a convenient path leading back to the way things were. The age can only advance. If what I want is not before my eyes, then my only option is to create the next world!!"
 * (To Ollerus, from NT10): "You weren't the one who understood me. He was a lot stronger than you."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "I was already saved the moment you said that to me."
 * (To Index, from NT 11): "Hey, don’t give him any attention. He’s the type that will grow addicted to the kindness people show him when he has a cold. We need to correct his behavior before it becomes a habit. Simply put, ignore him."
 * (To Touma, from NT 11): "I hope you aren’t looking down on me because I’m only fifteen centimeters tall now."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "Are you trying to keep everything to yourself like usual?"
 * (To Touma, from NT 12): "Your true value is different from that of a Magic God who has to determine superiority by the presence or absence of power. Isn’t that right? So feeling ashamed that you lack strength is pure foolishness. Your value shows itself once you accept what you lack and think about what to do without that strength."
 * (To Touma, from NT 14): "Your opponent’s power is just as abnormal. You can no longer fight like a joker taking on a group of aces and kings. This is a joker against a joker. In a way, it’s even harder to predict than a clash between two aces. You’ve never experienced something like this before, so you can’t predict what’s going to happen based on your accumulated experience. If you don’t focus your mind, you could easily end up dead in a way that ignores all the rules you’ve seen before."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "I just don’t feel at home when I’m not on your shoulder."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "Give up on that idea. Would you be able to save more people if you trained in martial arts? Would you be able to resolve things more smartly if you had a gun or a knife? That would have the exact opposite effect. The more means of killing you have and the farther you move from the path that saves your opponent using their own power, the weaker you will become. That alone is certain. You might not like having someone else act like they understand you, but as someone who was saved by you, I do understand."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "Don't look so surprised at everything I do. Aren't you supposed to understand me?"
 * (To Touma, ibid): "Evil is created when someone gives up on someone else. It appears when everyone gives up on someone as a lost cause and removes their path to salvation. Once they are cut off from everyone else, they become evil. Just look through history and you'll understand. What is the difference between a murderer who kills a single person and a great hero who kills one million? It has nothing to do with the person himself. It comes down to whether everyone else accepts him. It's an issue of majority rule."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "Martial arts, a gun, a knife, or any other obvious offensive power would only increase your ability to 'cut people off'. You would be no different from the cruel agents of revenge who delight in robbing people of a chance to reform and then tossing the majority rule loser into the abyss, all while calling it a punishment. Kamijou Touma, that is not your strength. Your greatest weapon is the powerful arm that reached into the abyss and saved even someone as hopelessly evil and rotten to the core as Magic God Othinus. That ability to connect is your ultimate trump card, so make no mistake and do not reach for a cheap answer. You couldn’t defeat the High Priest? This Kamisato guy wiped out all of those Magic Gods? You should be asking 'so what'. You should be looking down on Academy City for letting the High Priest die and on Kamisato for killing the Magic Gods without saving a single one. What is wanted from you is not violence on the same level as World Rejecter. It isn’t the power to kill. It is the power of human reason that can envelop that violence."
 * (To Touma, ibid): "It's like I was telling you: you don't have to carry it all by yourself. There isn’t just one pillar supporting the world. It isn't about what kind of realistic power anyone has and you shouldn’t give up just because you don't have anything. Even if they don’t have much – if anything at all – everyone is doing their best to live their lives even now."
 * (To Touma, from NT 18): "I won’t tell you not to go running ahead. That would be like telling a bird not to fly or a fish not to swim. But if you do start running, don’t give into despair. Abandoning thought is just being lazy. When you’re running recklessly forward is exactly when you need to remain calm. You need to make use of all your power to return alive."