Othinus

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

She is a Magic God, and is the leader of GREMLIN. A powerful being who refers to herself as a god, she is the primary antagonist for much of Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index.

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 the , a euhemerized 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 eyepatch over her right eye which she has presumably lost in order for her to drink from the, though this may just be a ritualistic and aesthetic choice, as Othinus is maybe invoking Idol Theory to match that of Odin of 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 hair of blond. 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 hass ribbon wrapped around her. Traces of a witch-like design is present, such as the cape and a wide brimmed hat with a pointed tip.

Personality
Othinus is 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 conniving 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.

Background
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.

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. It is a reference to the Odin of Norse mythology, who sacrificed his eye at 's Well of Wisdom in order to gain the Wisdom of Ages, as well as hanged 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.

Othinus would later attain the legendary title of Majin from Ollerus, which Ollerus proclaims to have been stolen from him, making her one of the most powerful beings in the Toaru Majutsu no Index storyline. This would mean that the girl that currently holds the title, has named herself as Othinus for a long time before even the creation of GREMLIN.

World War III
Othinus is mentioned in passing by Ollerus after finding Fiamma of the Right, referring to her as the person who stole his title of Majin.

Othinus was aware of the events of the war, along with other members, though it is unknown when exactly she formed the group that would be known as GREMLIN. 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 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.

Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index
All from the beginning, Othinus planned to acquire to Gungnir, the key to changing the world into her favor. Fitting her namesake of Odin, she played her comrades for fools. She used them to help her aid in the creation of Gungir, in spite of being able to create it on her own, propagating false information that there was only method and that it was the only way to acquire Gungnir. But it was just one of the many branches she can get Gugnir, and though it would've worked as well, she could easily make it own her own. This is because she used it as a decoy for her subordinates and especially those of her enemies who will surely interfere.

But her problem with the infinite possibilities of being a magic god still troubled her. Intending to unify her infinite possibilities, she saw that she could only rely on achieving 100% success through the fulfilling the decoy plan, seeing as the Imagine Breaker, being the reference point of the world is of no use. And she saw no way to achieve 100% failure as well, as she has reacheve a level where it would be difficult to obtain a truly 100% and thorough defeat. Thus begins the violent struggle to create Gungnir.

Hawaii Invasion Arc
She appears in voice-only, talking to Marian Slingeneyer the Dvergr, over the phone, regarding their plans, and their successful fulfilment of one its steps, the eruption of Kilaeua and the spreading of volcanic ash upon the world, and states on how she has gotten a report regarding Brunhild Eiktobel the Valkyrie, who once used Gungnir, a portion of it however. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Cendrillon, who is quickly defeated.

Baggage City Arc
With Bersi's knowledge in the darkness of Academy City, she allows him to be the only to know the true extent of the distortion that would occur for the experiment in Baggage City and orders him to adjust the experiment depending on the scope of what Academy City's forces that would inevitably attack.

After Bersi's death, Marian Slingeneyer swears to avenge him and prepares to unsheath Dáinsleif, the harbinger of. Othinus calls the Dvergr and beseeches her not to do it, or she would ruin GREMLIN's experiments. Marian merely scoffs at her.

When Kamijou Touma defeats Marian Slingeneyer and prepares to destroy Dáinsleif for fear it could be mastered and used at its full potential, Othinus reveals herself, stopping Touma and severing his right hand crushing the wrist.

Othinus promptly destroys Dáinsleif with her powers, cursing how Marian had to create such a thing. But then, the Invisible Thing within Touma tried to break free, though Othinus used her powers to suppress it, seemingly unimpressed with its state and form. It is then that Ollerus appears to confront Othinus, suggesting she leaves with Marian as he has business with the Imagine Breaker. The two spar and browbeat each other until Ollerus reveals he has Fiamma of the Right on his side, empowered by the fact that Kamijou Touma's hand was severed, allowing his world-saving powers to activate. Seeing this, Othinus begins to carry off Marian, but decides on a whim to fight and kill them off. The match ended in a draw.

Later, Othinus used her powers to raise the deceased Bersi from the dead to join the Einherjar and carry Marian for her. There, she declares the pieces are coming together. Having acquired a proper furnace in Hawaii and Gungir's blueprints having been stolen, all that's' needed is a specimen to become a Holistic esper — someone greater than a human, without Valkyrie or Saint properties that hasn't been altered by Academy City's Power Curriculum Program. Such a specimen exists within the confines of the Windowless Building.

Ichihanaran Festival Arc


Othinus appears at the end of the arc to meet the members of GREMLIN in a port in Tokyo Bay. There, she questions and then punishes Thor (who is actually Ollerus in disguise) concerning his failure to capture Fräulein Kreutune, by cutting off his right arm. However, the magic she used ended up being in the negative 50% of the infinite possibilities, so as a result her own right arm started to fall. She then decides to pick up the organs of the original Kakine Teitoku and use this new option to begin manufacturing the spear, unaware in that her group has been infiltrated.

Lance of Gungnir Arc
She has GREMLIN parked Sargasso on the waters near Tokyo instead of directly attacking Academy City. This is so that they can distribute what people hoped to gain, put pressure on Japan, Academy City, and all the nations who are against her, as well as the people living in Tokyo in order for them not to rise up in a unified force to attack her, which was the same way how Fiamma of the Right was defeated during World War III. There, Othinus and the other core members of GREMLIN are in their base at Sargasso making preparations to forge Gungnir. She then asks each of the members regarding the status of their assigned tasks and assigns Thor (Ollerus in disguise) to intercept the attackers once the lance enters production stage. Here, she is completely oblivious that both Ollerus and Fiamma of the Right is hiding within Sargasso, waiting for the moment to strike her down.

Once the parallel processor was finished by Bersi, he set it up to send signals to Kakine Teitoku's flesh and blood organs in order for it to produce Dark Matter. After some time, the organs produced white sticky substance and gathered to form Teitoku's own body. Othinus and Bersi both realized that Teitoku is already conscious. After hearing the conversation of Othinus and Bersi regarding of using him for their own purpose, he started to devour all the equipments attached to him and declared that all he knows is their fate for using him as a tool then attempt to attack them. He formed a dome around the headquarters of GREMLIN and proceeded to attack. Before the attack arrived, Othinus subdued Teitoku by unhesitatingly grabbing Teitoku's neck in one hand, digging her fingertips to his neck. At that instant the dome collapsed. Othinus and Bersi then exchanged a few short words. Othinus then forced Teitoku to submission and transformed him into a mass the size of a volleyball then tossed it to Bersi and commanded him to do what needs to be done with it. She then senses that their base was already found by their enemies. Once Bersi's assigned task was complete, Othinus then instructed him to intercept their enemies and destroy what needed to be destroyed to buy them time while producing the lance.

While battles are going on, Othinus, Marian and Mjölnir stood at the side of a large pool filled with a thick transparent liquid which is actually pure gold that lost its chemical properties and meaning. Othinus then wondered that the sight before her is what its like when beginning the production of the lance. Marian then explains it to her and assured Othinus that all they have to do is to wait once the process starts, to which Othinus that she won't let her guard down until it passes a certain stage. She then mentions that what they are doing is essentially a magic ceremony but cannot be completed solely with magic since the automatic work will stall somewhere. To accurately throw in the holistic esper and continue the ceremony with the proper timing, it needs to be switched over manually.

As the white girl, the Holistic esper (made of Dark Matter), stood in the center, eight giant flower petals bloomed while fused to her ankles. A great number of electrodes were sticking into the petals and various signals were being sent into the girl via cables. Those signals were producing extended high-pitched screams. The handle of the lance the size of human arm is already visible at the bottom of the pool. Marian then remarked that the process is going well and if the process keeps up, they will surely make it through without issue to which Othinus replied that saying the word 'surely' meaningless. While the process is approaching the manual part, the white girl started to collapse and Marian was in already in a state of panic. Othinus then forced her hand inside the white girl and grabbed the area corresponding to a human’s lungs. She squeezed like a pump to force air out. She then told Marian that the time spent in negotiating will just lead the production of the lance to failure so she instructed her to immediately do the manual switching to continue, to which Marian complied and it was a success. Dark red blood then trickled from Othinus’s eyepatch and the core of Othinus shook. Othinus then told Marian that she will go somewhere and focus on mending herself.

Othinus suddenly appeared behind Thor (Ollerus in disguise) after he destroyed Mökkurkalfe and asked what is he doing. Thor (Ollerus in disguise) then said that it is about time and threatened Othinus regarding Marian. Othinus then threatened him to show his true self and he transformed back to his true self. She then questioned Ollerus motives of being there and someone's life or death won't stop her from carrying out her plan. Ollerus then remarked that he is glad that she didn't see through his plan and her infinite possibilities send her power to the negative direction. Othinus then responded in disappointment that there is no way she would add him to her ranks of Einherjar and she would totally obliterate him and Ollerus responded to her mockingly to which Othinus responded by creating tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of strange explosions in the slight space between them. The battle between Ollerus and Othinus goes on then immediately, Ollerus rushed up to Othinus while disregarding the damage he is taking. He then jabbed his glowing palm at the center of Othinus chest to turn her into a fairy based on the idea that fairies were former pagan gods that were shrank down by Christianity without being aware of it. In that way, the magic god will be returned/dragged down to the territory of a human. But despite that, Othinus just laughed and told him that she deceived his senses and thanked him for giving her a means to finally defeat him. She then used the same move against Ollerus to turn him into a fairy. Ollerus then staggered and said that his second hope is still on track. Othinus was confused then suddenly she was stabbed by the same spell again, this time by Fiamma of the Right who seems to appear out of nowhere. Ollerus then told her that he no longer have an interest in becoming the magic god but he won't allow someone to misuse it. At that moment, it seems that it is all over for Othinus but she just laughed. She then told them that she doesn't care whether she lose, what's important to her is unifying her infinite possibilities. She only needed it to lean in one direction or the other. It did not matter whether she completed the lance and have 100% success or become a fairy and have 100% failure. Whether she win or lose, she will be a complete magic god. While saying all these things to Ollerus and Fiamma, Kamijou and the others approached GREMLIN's base. As they approached the end of Sargasso, Kamijou doubted if it is still part of the real world. He then sees Ollerus' body fall from the deck of a passenger ship. Othinus then told him that he was too late. Kamijou then asked about the lance to which Othinus responded that it all ended in failure but it didn't matter to her since all she wants is to complete her position as the magic god and as long as there is a way of doing it even without the lance, it doesn't matter anymore. She then told Kamijou that all of it was just a decoy, even the formation of GREMLIN and everything that happened in the past. Othinus then pulled the lance of gungnir that she made herself from her right eye socket. While Othinus laughed, Kamijou was speechless. She then declared that she is now a complete magic god by having both solutions at once to which Kamijou just screamed. Othinus then lightly spun the lance around in one hand and pointed its tip toward the heavens and said that little fights are so troublesome, thus she'll just end the world. And exactly as she had announced, everything was immediately destroyed.

Abilities
Othinus is a Majin, 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. A version of a instant attack spell, it have similarities with the Telesma Summoned Explosion from Leivinia.

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.

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.

Finally, wielding Gungnir gives her the power to destroy the world.

Other abilities

 * 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.

Equipment

 * 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.

Character Art Designs
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.

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."